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LAYS    OF    ANCIENT    ROME 


T.    B.    MACAULAY. 


MACAULAY'S 


LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME 


Edited 
With  Introduction  and  Notes 

BY 

MOSES    GRANT    DANIELL 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 

GINN    &    COMrANY.    PUBLISHERS 

CI)e  at!)cnafum  Press 

1902 


Copyright,  iSgg 
By   GINN    &    COMPANY 

ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA  COLLE^iE  LIBRARY 


•"?43 

/)7 

77095 

1 

PREFACE 

In  preparing  notes  for  this  edition  of  the  Lays,  the  editor 
has  had  in  mind  chiefly  the  needs  of  the  non-classical  student, 
to  whom  the  text  presents  much  that  he  is  not  at  all  familiar 
with.  What  any  reader  needs,  in  order  to  derive  the  greatest 
satisfaction  from  the  reading,  is  a  clear  appreciation  of  the 
circumstances  and  situations  as  they  might  appear  to  a  Roman 
for  whom  the  Lays  are  assumed  to  have  been  written.  To 
go  further  than  this,  and  make  the  Lays  a  basis  for  the 
extended  study  of  Roman  history,  geography,  mythology, 
and  antiquities,  would,  in  the  editor's  opinion,  be  a  mistake. 
The  author  deemed  his  own  introductions  to  the  several 
Lays  to  be  sufficient;  but  these  take  for  granted  a  certain 
amount  of  knowledge  that  young  readers  cannot  fairly  be 
assumed  to  possess;  and  even  the  customary  explanatory 
notes,  unless  inordinately  extended,  leave  something  to  be 
desired.  One  needs  to  read  at  some  length  the  accounts 
that  historians  have  given  of  Rome  in  the  early  days,  in 
order  to  surround  himself  with  the  right  atmosphere,  so  to 
speak,  in  which  to  read  the  Lays  with  the  keenest  apprecia- 
tion. Any  good  history  of  Rome  that  has  a  good  index 
may  be  used  for  the  purpose  here  indicated. 

The  editor  has  not  often  yielded  to  the  ever-present  tempta- 
tion to  give  the  meanings  of  words  that  can  be  found  in  a 
dictionary.  Some  such  words  need  additional  explanation 
or  illustration,  but  in  general  the  student  should  learn  to 
depend  upon  his  own  research. 


IV  PRE  FA  CE. 

A  map  of  Etruria  and  Latium  and  parts  adjacent  and  a 
map  of  early  Rome  have  been  provided,  with  the  idea  that  it 
is  well  for  the  reader  to  associate  a  "  local  habitation  "  with 
the  names  that  he  encounters,  and  that  maps  are  better  than 
notes  for  this  purpose.  Places  not  to  be  found  in  the  maps 
are  referred  to  in  the  notes. 

The  texts  of  the  early  editions  and  of  several  later  editions, 
English  and  American,  have  been  carefully  collated.  It  was 
with  much  hesitation  that  the  editor  ventured  to  make  essen- 
tial changes  in  the  original  punctuation,  which  has  been 
followed  in  most  of  the  subsequent  editions  that  he  has 
examined.  He  decided  to  make  them,  however,  in  the  con- 
viction that  a  system  of  punctuation  more  in  accordance  with 
present  usage  in  this  country  would  make  the  reading  easier. 
A  similar  explanation  may  be  made  of  a  few  changes  in 
spelling. 

A  pronouncing  vocabulary  of  proper  names  (according  to 
the  English  method)  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  found  useful  to  many 
readers. 

The  editor  gratefully  acknowledges  his  obligations  to  Mr. 
William  Tappan  for  valuable  criticisms  and  suggestions. 

M.  G.  D. 

January,  1899. 


CONTENTS, 


Page 

Introduction       .        .                .......  vii 

Author's  Preface    .........  3 

HoRATius       .........  27 

The  Battle  of  the  Lake  Regillus 53 

Virginia 87 

The  Prophecy  of  Capys 109 

Notes     .        .         .         .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  125 

Pronouncing  Vocabulary 143 

MAPS. 

ETRURIA,  L.A.TIUM,  ETC. 2 

Rome  under  the  Kings 26 


INTRODUCTION. 


Thomas  Babington  Macaulay,  son  of  Zachary  Macaulay, 
an  eminent  philanthropist,  was  born  Oct.  25, 1800,  at  Rothley 
Temple,  Leicestershire,  England.  He  was  graduated  at 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  in  1822,  and  in  1824  was  elected 
a  Fellow  of  Trinity,  remaining  there  till  1825.  He  entered 
Parliament  in  1830.  In  1834  he  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Supreme  Council  of  India,  and  soon  proceeded  to  Calcutta, 
where  he  remained  till  1838.  He  was  again  elected  to  Par- 
liament in  1839,  appointed  War-secretary  in  1840,  and  Pay- 
master-general in  1846.  In  1847  he  was  defeated  in  his 
canvass  for  Parliament,  but  was  re-elected  in  1852.  In  1857 
he  was  raised  to  the  peerage  of  Great  Britain  under  the  title 
of  Baron  Macaulay  of  Rothley.  He  died  Dec.  28,  1859,  at 
his  residence,  Holly  Lodge,  London,  and  was  buried  in 
Westminster  Abbey  in  the  "Poets'  Corner." 

In  his  earliest  childhood  Macaulay  gave  evidence  of  the 
remarkable  intellectual  gifts  with  which  nature  had  endowed 
him,  and  of  his  decided  bent  towards  literary  pursuits.  Be- 
fore he  was  eight  years  old  he  had  written  a  Compendium  of 
Universal  Histoiy  and  a  romance  entitled  The  Battle  of 
Cheviot.  A  little  later  he  composed  poems  of  great  length. 
These  juvenile  productions  are  said  to  have  been  creditable 
performances  for  one  of  his  age,  or,  as  Hannah  More  said  of 
some  hymns  that  he  had  composed,  "  quite  extraordinary  for 
such  a  baby."  They  are  mentioned  here  only  to  show  how 
early  his  mental  activity  began  to  display  itself. 


viii  INTRODUCTION. 

At  college  he  acquired  a  brilliant  reputation  as  a  scholar 
and  debater,  though  he  did  not  reach  the  highest  college 
rank  on  account  of  his  dislike  of  mathematical  studies.  He 
twice  received  the  Chancellor's  medal  for  excellence  in  Eng- 
lish verse. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar ;  but 
after  a  year  or  two  he  found  that  the  law  was  not  his  voca- 
tion, and  soon  abandoned  it  altogether.  Meanwhile  fame 
was  coming  to  him  from  other  directions.  In  1825  his  first 
contribution  to  the  Edinburgh  Revieiv,  the  essay  on  Milton, 
appeared,  and  it  at  once  became  evident  that  a  new  star  had 
risen  on  the  literary  horizon.  He  continued  to  write  for  the 
Review  for  nearly  twenty  years,  during  which  time  appeared 
the  celebrated  essays  on  Lord  Bacon,  Bunyan,  Lord  Clive, 
Warren  Hastings,  and  others,  all  marked  by  the  same  pro- 
fundity of  learning,  the  same  wealth  and  aptness  of  illustra- 
tion, the  same  brilliancy  of  fancy,  the  same  critical  acumen, 
and  the  same  felicities  of  style  that  characterized  his  first 
effort. 

In  his  political  career  Macaulay  was  an  ardent  Whig;  but 
he  never  sacrificed  his  convictions  of  what  was  right  to  mere 
expediency  or  to  popular  clamor.  It  was  his  independence 
that  cost  him  his  seat  in  Parliament  in  1847.  In  Parliament 
he  was  a  skilful  and  ready  debater,  and  his  reputation  as  an 
exceptionally  brilliant  orator  always  attracted  crowds  of  eager 
listeners  whenever  it  was  known  that  he  was  to  speak. 

His  services  in  India  were  of  great  value  to  the  govern- 
ment and  to  the  people  of  that  country.  He  drafted  a  penal 
code,  which,  after  much  discussion  and  revision,  became  the 
code  under  which  criminal  law  is  now  administered  through- 
out the  Indian  empire.  He  also  set  on  foot  a  system  of 
national  education,  which  has  since  spread  over  the  whole 
of  India. 

The  History  of  England  was  to  be  the  crowning  work  of 


INTRODUCTION.  ix 

Macaulay's  life,  and  that  upon  which  his  fame  should  chiefly 
rest.  He  gradually  gave  up  all  thought  of  further  political 
preferment,  devoting  the  last  years  of  his  life  almost  exclu- 
sively to  the  immense  labor  involved  in  the  prosecution  of 
this  work.  Unfortunately,  he  lived  to  complete  only  five 
volumes.  When  the  first  two  volumes  were  issued,  in  1848, 
they  were  received  with  remarkable  enthusiasm  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.  In  fact,  no  similar  work  had  ever  met  with 
such  a  reception. 

In  the  height  of  his  fame  as  a  statesman,  orator,  and 
writer,  Macaulay  achieved  also  great  social  distinction,  for 
to  his  other  accomplishments  he  added  that  of  being  a  very 
entertaining  converser  and  story-teller.  "  His  family  break- 
fast table  was  covered  with  cards  of  invitation  to  dinner  from 
every  quarter  of  London." 

He  was  altogether  charming  in  his  domestic  relations.  He 
was  never  married,  but  seemed  to  live  for  his  sister  Hannah, 
to  whom  he  was  devotedly  attached,  and  whose  children  he 
treated  as  his  own. 

No  account  of  Macaulay,  however  brief,  is  complete  with- 
out mention  of  his  prodigious  memory.  He  seemed  to 
remember  without  effort  everything  that  he  had  ever  read 
or  heard,  even  to  the  minutest  details.  "At  one  period  of 
his  life  he  was  known  to  say  that,  if  by  some  miracle  of  van- 
dalism all  copies  of  Paradise  Lost  and  The  Pilgrim's  Progress 
were  destroyed  off  the  face  of  the  earth,  he  would  undertake 
to  reproduce  them  both  from  recollection  whenever  a  revival 
of  learning  came."  ^  Even  towards  the  end  of  his  life  he 
would  sometimes  devote  his  leisure  hours  to  testing  his 
memory.  "  I  walked  in  the  portico,"  he  writes  in  October, 
1857,  "and  learned  by  heart  the  noble  Fourth  Act  of  the 
Merchant  of  Venice.  There  are  four  hundred  lines,  of  which 
I  knew  a  hundred  and  fifty.     I  made  myself  perfect  master 

^  Life  and  Lettei-s,  vol.  i,  p.  52. 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  whole,  the  prose  letter  included,  in  two  hours."  ^  On 
one  occasion,  in  answer  to  a  friendly  challenge  to  a  feat  of 
memory,  he  drew  ofif  at  once  a  full  list  of  the  Senior  Wranglers 
at  Cambridge,  with  their  dates  and  colleges,  for  the  hundred 
years  during  which  the  names  of  Senior  Wranglers  had  been 
recorded  in  the  University  Calendar. 

Through  all  his  varied  career  he  never  ceased  to  keep  up 
his  acquaintance  with  classic  literature.  Even  in  the  midst 
of  the  turmoil  of  political  life  and  the  incessant  demands  of 
official  position,  he  found  time  to  read  again  and  again  the 
works  that  most  men  close  forever  when  they  leave  college. 

In  his  correspondence  and  in  his  journal  he  makes 
frequent  reference  to  this  habit,  as,  for  example :  "  Calcutta, 
Dec.  30,  1835.  .  .  .  During  the  last  thirteen  months  I 
have  read  ^schylus  twice ;  Sophocles  twice ;  Euripides  once ; 
Pindar  twice  ;  Callimachus ;  Apollonius  Rhodius ;  Quintus 
Calaber;  Theocritus  twice;  Herodotus;  Thucydides;  almost 
all  Xenophon's  works;  almost  all  Plato;  Aristotle's  Politics, 
and  a  good  deal  of  his  Organon, — besides  dipping  elsewhere 
in  him  ;  the  whole  of  Plutarch's  Lives;  about  half  of  Lucian; 
two  or  three  books  of  Athenaeus;  Plautus  twice;  Terence 
twice;  Lucretius  twice  ;  Catullus;  Tibullus;  Propertius;  Lu- 
can;  Statius;  Silius  Italicus;  Livy;  Velleius  Paterculus;  Sal- 
lust;   Caesar;  and,  lastly,  Cicero.^ 

Macaulay's  purpose  in  writing  the  Lays  he  has  fully  ex- 
plained in  the  preface.  A  few  additional  statements  and 
remarks  about  them  are  worth  quoting.  Writing  to  the 
editor  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  in  July,  1842,  he  says :  "  You 
are  acquainted,  no  doubt,  with  Perizonius's  theory  about  the 
early  Roman  history,  —  a  theory  which  Niebuhr  revived,  and 
which  Arnold  ^  has  adopted  as  fully  established.  I  have 
myself  not  the  smallest  doubt  of  its  truth.     It  is  that  the 

1  Life  and  Letters,  vol.  i,  p.  448.  -  Ibid.,  p.  443. 

^  Dr.  Thomas  Arnold  of  Rugby. 


INTRODUCTION.  xi 

Stories  of  the  birth  of  Romulus  and  Remus,  the  fight  of  the 
Horatii  and  Curiatii,  and  all  the  other  romantic  tales  which 
fill  the  first  three  or  four  books  of  Livy,  came  from  the  lost 
ballads  of  the  early  Romans.  I  amused  myself  in  India  with 
trying  to  restore  some  of  these  long-perished  poems.  Arnold 
saw  two  of  them  and  wrote  to  me  in  such  terms  of  eulogy 
that  I  have  been  induced  to  correct  and  complete  them. 
There  are  four  of  them,  and  I  think  that,  though  they  are  but 
trifles,  they  may  pass  for  scholarlike  and  not  inelegant  trifles. 
I  must  prefix  short  prefaces  to  them,  and  I  think  of  publish- 
ing them  next  November  in  a  small  volume."  ^ 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  the  same  person, 
written  Nov.  i6,  1842,  after  the  Lays  had  been  published, 
shows  something  of  his  own  opinion  regarding  them  :  "  I  am 
glad  that  you  like  my  Lays,  and  the  more  glad  because  I 
know  that,  from  good-will  to  me,  you  must  have  been  anxious 
about  their  fate.  I  do  not  wonder  at  your  misgivings.  I 
should  have  felt  similar  misgivings  if  I  had  learned  that  any 
person,  however  distinguished  by  talents  and  knowledge, 
whom  I  knew  as  a  writer  only  by  prose  works,  was  about 
to  publish  a  volume  of  poetry.  Had  I  seen  advertised  a 
poem  by  Mackintosh,  by  Dugald  Stewart,  or  even  by  Burke, 
I  should  have  augured  nothing  but  failure  ;  and  I  am  far 
from  putting  myself  on  a  level  even  with  the  least  of  the 
three.  So  much  the  better  for  me.  Where  people  look  for 
no  merit,  a  little  merit  goes  a  long  way ;  and,  without  the 
smallest  affectation  of  modesty,  I  confess  that  the  success  of 
my  little  book  has  far  exceeded  its  just  claims.  I  shall  be  in 
no  hurry  to  repeat  the  experiment;  for  I  am  well  aware  that 
a  second  attempt  would  be  made  under  much  less  favorable 
circumstances.  A  far  more  severe  test  would  now  be  applied 
to  my  verses.  I  shall,  therefore,  like  a  wise  gamester,  leave 
off  while  I  am  a  winner,  and  not  cry  Double  or  Quits."  ^ 

1  life  and  Letters,  vol.  ii,  p.  M2.  2  J^,i^l_^  p.  122. 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

In  his  journal,  under  date  Sept.  9,  1850,  he  writes:  "Those 
poems  have  now  been  eight  years  published.  They  still  sell, 
and  seem  still  to  give  pleasure.  I  do  not  rate  them  high ; 
but  I  do  not  remember  that  any  better  poetry  has  been 
published  since."  ^ 

The  remarkable  popularity  of  the  Lays  from  the  very  first 
shows  that  Macaulay  struck  a  responsive  chord  in  the  hearts 
of  old  and  young  alike.  They  were  received  with  the  warm- 
est praise  not  only  by  the  public  but  by  the  reviewers,  only 
now  and  then  one  finding,  serious  fault  with  them.  Some 
later  critics,  however,  have  gone  so  far  as  to  assert  that 
Macaulay  was  no  poet  —  that  the  Lays  are  not  poetry ;  but 
no  amount  of  hostile  criticism,  not  even  the  great  name  of 
Matthew  Arnold,  seems  to  lessen  the  favor  in  which  they  are 
still  held. 

The  following  passages,  quoted  from  various  sources,  will 
be  of  interest  to  the  student. 

"You  are  very  right  in  admiring  Macaulay,  who  has  a 
noble,  clear,  metallic  note  in  his  soul,  and  makes  us  ready 
by  it  for  battle.  I  very  much  admire  Mr.  Macaulay,  and 
could  scarcely  read  his  ballads  and  keep  lying  down.  They 
seemed  to  draw  me  up  to  my  feet,  as  the  mesmeric  powers 
are  said  to  do."  ^ 

"  It  is  the  great  merit  of  these  poems  that  they  are  free 
from  ambition  or  exaggeration.  Nothing  seems  overdone  — 
no  tawdry  piece  of  finery  disfigures  the  simplicity  of  the  plan 
that  has  been  chosen.  They  seem  to  have  been  framed  with 
great  artistical  skill  —  with  much  self-denial  and  abstinence 
from  anything  incongruous  —  and  with  a  very  successful  imi- 
tation of  the  effects  intended  to  be  represented.     Set  every 

1  Life  and  Letters,  vol.  ii,  p.  282. 

2  Letters  of  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning,  addressed  to  Richard  Hengist 
Home,  vol.  i,  p.  loi. 


INTRODUCTION.  xiii 

here  and  there,  images  of  beauty  and  expressions  of  feeling 
are  thrown  out  that  are  wholly  independent  of  Rome  or  the 
Romans,  and  that  appeal  to  the  widest  sensibilities  of  the 
human  heart.  In  point  of  homeliness  of  thought  and  lan- 
guage, there  is  often  a  boldness  which  none  but  a  man  con- 
scious of  great  powers  of  writing  would  have  ventured  to 
show."^ 

"...  the  pinchbeck  Roman  ballads  of  Lord  Macaulay." 

"  Let  me  frankly  say  that,  to  my  mind,  a  man's  power  to 

detect  the  ring  of  false  metal  in  those  Lays  is  a  good  measure 

of  his  fitness  to  give  an  opinion  about  poetical  matters  at 

all."=^ 

"  The  merits  of  Macaulay's  poetry  are  similar  to  his  prose, 
except  that  his  verse  is  characterized  by  more  imagination. 
The  same  living  energy,  however,  animates  both.  He  is  a 
man  of  the  most  extensive  acquirements,  possessing  the 
power  of  representing  his  knowledge  in  magnificent  pictures. 
He  has  a  quick  sympathy  with  whatever  addresses  the 
passions  and  the  fancy,  and  a  truly  masculine  mind.  His 
style  alternates  between  copiousness  and  condensation,  and 
the  transitions  are  contrived  with  consummate  skill.  The 
most  brilliant  and  rapid  of  all  contemporary  writers,  his 
poetry  is  an  array  of  strong  thoughts  and  glittering  fancies 
bounding  along  on  a  rushing  stream  of  feeling.  It  has 
almost  the  appearance  of  splendid  impromptu  composi- 
tion. The  '  Lay  '  of  '  Virginia '  contains  some  exquisite 
delineations  of  the  affections,  full  of  natural  pathos  and  a 
certain  serene  beauty,  somewhat  different  from  Macaulay's 
usual  martial  tone."  ^ 

1  Professor  Wilson,  in  Blackwood'' s  Magazine,  vol.  lii,  p.  802. 

-  Matthew  Arnold,  in  On  Translating  Homer. 

3  E.  P.  Whipple,  in  Essays  and  Reviews,  vol.  i,  p.  340  (1S48). 


xiv  INTRODUCTION. 

"  In  them  [the  Roman  ballads]  are  repeated  all  the  merits 
and  all  the  defects  of  the  Essays.  The  men  and  women  are 
mere  enumerations  of  qualities;  the  battle-pieces  are  masses 
of  uncombined  incidents:  but  the  characteristics  of  the  periods 
treated  have  been  caught  and  reproduced  with  perfect  accu- 
racy. The  setting  of  Horatius,  which  belongs  to  the  earliest 
days  of  Rome,  is  totally  different  from  the  setting  of  the 
Prophecy  of  Capys,  which  belongs  to  the  time  when  Rome 
was  fast  acquiring  the  mastery  over  Italy;  and  in  each  case 
the  setting  is  studiously  and  remarkably  exact.  In  these 
poems,  again,  there  is  the  same  prodigious  learning,  the  same 
richness  of  illustration,  which  distinguish  the  Essays ;  and 
they  are  adorned  with  a  profusion  of  metaphor  and  aptness 
of  epithets  which  is  most  admirable."  ^ 

"And  he  knows,  too,  how  to  stir  the  blood  of  the  average 
Englishman.  He  understands  most  thoroughly  the  value  of 
concentration,  unity,  and  simplicity.  Every  speech  or  essay 
forms  an  artistic  whole,  in  which  some  distinct  moral  is  vigor- 
ously driven  home  by  a  succession  of  downright  blows. 
This  strong  rhetorical  instinct  is  shown  conspicuously  in  the 
Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,  which,  whatever  we  may  say  of  them 
as  poetry,  are  an  admirable  specimen  of  rhymed  rhetoric. 
We  know  how  good  they  are  when  we  see  how  incapable  are 
modern  ballad-writers  in  general  of  putting  the  same  swing 
and  fire  into  their  verses.  Compare,  for  example,  Aytoun's 
Lays  of  the  Cavaliers,  as  the  most  obvious  parallel:  — 

Not  swifter  pours  the  avalanche 

Adown  the  steep  incline, 
That  rises  o'er  the  parent  springs 

Of  rough  and  rapid  Rhine, 

1  John  Bach  McMaster,  in  Library  of  the  World'' s  Best  Literature, 
vol.  xvi,  p.  9384. 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

than  certain  Scotch  heroes  over  an  entrenchment.  .  Place 
this  mouthing  by  any  parallel  passage  in  Macaulay:  — 

Now,  by  our  sire  Quirinus, 

It  was  a  goodly  sight 
To  see  the  thirty  standards 

Swept  down  the  tide  of  flight. 

So  flies  the  spray  in  Adria 

When  the  black  squall  doth  blow. 

So  corn-sheaves  in  the  flood  time 
Spin  down  the  whirling  Po. 

And  so  on,  in  verses  which  innumerable  schoolboys  of  infe- 
rior pretensions  to  Macaulay's  know  by  heart.  And  in  such 
cases  the  verdict  of  the  schoolboy  is  perhaps  more  valuable 
than  that  of  the  literary  connoisseur.  There  are,  of  course, 
many  living  poets  who  can  do  tolerably  something  of  far 
higher  quality  which  Macaulay  could  not  do  at  all.  But  I 
don't  know  who,  since  Scott,  could  have  done  this  particular 
thing.  Possibly  Mr.  Kingsley  might  have  approached  it,  or 
the  poet,  if  he  would  have  condescended  so  far,  who  sang 
the  bearing  of  the  good  news  from  Ghent  to  Aix.  In  any 
case,  the  feat  is  significant  of  Macaulay's  true  power.  It 
looks  easy;  it  involves  no  demands  upon  the  higher  reason- 
ing or  imaginative  powers:  but  nobody  will  believe  it  to  be 
easy  who  observes  the  extreme  rarity  of  a  success  in  a  feat 
so  often  attempted."  ^ 

"  The  chorus  of  enthusiastic  applause  with  which  the  Lays 
were  received  —  Macaulay's  veteran  adversary,  Christopher 
North,  shouting  with  the  loudest,  —  has  not,  perhaps,  been 
uniformly  echoed  by  the  critics  of  latter  days;  but  with  the 
far  more  important  audience  which  lies  outside  the  little 
circle  of  self-appointed  judges  and  accepts  their  judgments 
1  Leslie  Stephen,  in  Horn's  in  a  Library,  vol.  ii,  p.  369. 


xvi  INTR  on  UC  TION. 

only  when  it  agrees  with  them,  they  have  never  lost  their 
popularity.  Every  schoolboy  knows  them,  to  use  a  favorite 
phrase  of  Macaulay's  own,  though  schoolboys  are  not  usually 
partial  to  poetry;  but  to  the  minstrelsy  of  Scott  or  Macaulay 
—  it  is  much  to  mention  them  together — no  healthy-minded 
boy  refuses  to  listen,  nor  should  we  think  much  of  the  boy 
who  could  not  declaim  some  of  the  fiery  sentences  of  Icilius, 
or  describe  exactly  the  manner  of  the  death  of  Ocnus  or 
Aruns,  Seius  or  Lausulus.  Of  older  readers  it  is  less  neces- 
sary to  speak,  as  he  who  has  known  Macaulay's  Lays  in  his 
childhood  has  no  occasion  to  refer  to  them  again.  There  is 
an  unfading  charm  in  the  swing  and  vigor  of  the  lines,  which 
bring  to  our  ears  the  very  sound  of  the  battle,  the  clash  of 
steel  and  the  rushing  of  the  horses,  '  the  noise  of  the  cap- 
tains and  the  shouting.'  '  A  cut  and  thrust  style,'  Wilson 
called  it,  '  without  any  flourish  —  Scott's  style  when  his 
blood  was  up  and  the  first  words  came  like  a  vanguard 
impatient  for  battle.'     The  praise  is  scarcely  extravagant."  ^ 

1  Mrs.  Oliphant,  in  The  Victorian  Age  of  English  Literature,  vol.  i, 
p.  174. 


MACAU  LAY'S 
LAYS    OF   ANCIENT    ROME. 


Longitude  H 


PART   OF    CENTRAL    ITALY. 
(Etruria,  Latium,  etc.) 


LAYS    OF   ANCIENT    ROME. 


PREFACE.i 

That  what  is  called  the  history  of  the  Kings  and  early- 
Consuls  of  Rome  is  to  a  great  extent  fabulous,  few  scholars 
have,  since  the  time  of  Beaufort,  ventured  to  deny.  It  is 
certain  that,  more  than  three  hundred  and  sixty  years  after 
the  date  ordinarily  assigned  for  the  foundation  of  the  city,  5 
the  public  records  were,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  de- 
stroyed by  the  Gauls.  It  is  certain  that  the  oldest  annals 
of  the  commonwealth  were  compiled  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half  after  this  destruction  of  the  records.  It  is  cer- 
tain, therefore,  that  the  great  Latin  writers  of  the  Angus-  10 
tan  age  did  not  possess  those  materials  without  which 
a  trustworthy  account  of  the  infancy  of  the  republic  could 
not  possibly  be  framed.  Those  writers  own,  indeed,  that 
the  chronicles  to  which  they  had  access  were  filled  with 
battles  that  were  never  fought  and  Consuls  that  were  never  1 5 
inaugurated ;  and  we  have  abundant  proof  that,  in  these 
chronicles,  events  of  the  greatest  importance,  such  as  the 
issue  of  the  war  with  Porsena  and  the  issue  of  the  war  with 
Brennus,  were  grossly  misrepresented.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, a  wise  man  will  look  with  great  suspicion  on  20 
the  legend  which  has  come  down  to  us.  He  will  perhaps 
be  inclined  to  regard  the  princes  who  are  said  to  have 

1  This  is  Macaulay's  general  introduction  to  the  Lays. 
3 


4  LA  YS  OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

founded  the  civil  and  religious  institutions  of  Rome,  the 
son  of  Mars  and  the  husband  of  Egeria,  as  mere  mytho- 
logical personages,  of  the  same  class  with  Perseus  and 

•  Ixion.  As  he  draws  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  confines 
5  of  authentic  history,  he  will  become  less  and  less  hard  of 
belief.  He  will  admit  that  the  most  important  parts  of 
the  narrative  have  some  foundation  in  truth.  But  he  will 
distrust  almost  all  the  details,  not  only  because  they  sel- 
dom rest  on  any  solid  evidence,  but  also  because  he  will 

10  constantly  detect  in  them,  even  when  they  are  within  the 
limits  of  physical  possibility,  that  peculiar  character,  more 
easily  understood  than  defined,  which  distinguishes  the 
creations  of  the  imagination  from  the  realities  of  the  world 
in  which  we  live. 

15  The  early  history  of  Rome  is  indeed  far  more  poetical 
than  anything  else  in  Latin  literature.  The  loves  of  the 
Vestal  and  the  God  of  War,  the  cradle  laid  among  the 
reeds  of  Tiber,  the  fig-tree,  the  she-wolf,  the  shepherd's 
cabin,  the    recognition,  the   fratricide,  the   rape    of   the 

20  Sabines,  the  death  of  Tarpeia,  the  fall  of  Hostus  Hostil- 
ius,  the  struggle  of  Mettus  Curtius  through  the  marsh, 
the  women  rushing  with  torn  raiment  and  dishevelled 
hair  between  their  fathers  and  their  husbands,  the  nightly 
meetings  of  Numa  and  the  Nymph  by  the  well  in  the 

25  sacred  grove,  the  fight  of  the  three  Romans  and  the  three 
Albans,  the  purchase  of  the  Sibylline  books,  the  crime  of 
Tullia,  the  simulated  madness  of  Brutus,  the  ambiguous 
reply  of  the  Delphian  oracle  to  the  Tarquins,  the  wrongs 
of    Lucretia,  the  heroic  actions  of   Horatius  Codes,  of 

30  Scaevola,  and  of  Cloelia,  the  battle  of  Regillus  won  by 
the  aid  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  the  defence  of  Cremera, 
the  touching  story  of  Coriolanus,  the  still  more  touching 
story  of  Virginia,  the  wild  legend  about  the  draining  of 
the  Alban  lake,  the  combat  between  Valerius  Corvus  and 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  5 

the  gigantic  Gaul,  are  among  the  many  instances  which 
will  at  once  suggest  themselves  to  every  reader. 

In  the  narrative  of  Livy,  who  was  a  man  of  fine  imag- 
ination, these  stories  retain  much  of  their  genuine  char- 
acter. Nor  could  even  the  tasteless  Dionysius  distort  5 
and  mutilate  them  into  mere  prose.  The  poetry  shines, 
in  spite  of  him,  through  the  dreary  pedantry  of  his  eleven 
books.  It  is  discernible  in  the  most  tedious  and  in  the 
most  superficial  modern  works  on  the  early  times  of  Rome. 
It  enlivens  the  dulness  of  the  Universal  Histoiy,  and  gives  10 
a  charm  to  the  most  meagre  abridgments  of  Goldsmith. 

Even  in  the  age  of  Plutarch  there  were  discerning  men 
who  rejected  the  popular  account  of  the  foundation  of 
Rome,  because  that  account  appeared  to  them  to  have 
the  air,  not  of  a  history,  but  of  a  romance  or  a. drama.  15 
Plutarch,  who  was   displeased   at   their  incredulity,  had 
nothing  better  to  say  in  reply  to  their  arguments  than 
that  chance  sometimes  turns  poet,  and  produces  trains 
of  events  not  to  be  distinguished  from  the  most  elaborate 
plots  which  are  constructed  by  art.^    But  though  the  exist-  20 
ence  of  a   poetical   element   in  the  early  history  of  the 
Great  City  was  detected  so  many  years  ago,  the  first  critic 
who  distinctly  saw  from  what  source  that  poetical  element 
had  been  derived  was  James  Perizonius,  one  of  the  most 
acute  and  learned  antiquaries  of  the  seventeenth  century.  25 
His  theory,  which  in  his  own  days  attracted  little  or  no 

^'TTroTrTOf  ii.lv  eviois  icrrl  to  SpafiariKhv  kuI  7rXa(r/xaTaJ5es  •  ov  Set  81 
dirio'Teii',  TTjv  rdxT'  opwfTas,  o'iwv  TronjfxaTiov  5r]fjLLovpy6s  iari.  —  Pint. 
Rom.  viii.  This  remarkable  passage  has  been  more  grossly  misin- 
terpreted than  any  other  in  the  Greek  language,  where  the  sense 
was  so  obvious.  The  Latin  version  of  Cruserius,  the  French  version 
of  Amyot,  the  old  English  version  by  several  hands,  and  the  later 
English  version  by  Langhorne,  are  all  equally  destitute  of  every  trace 
of  the  meaning  of  the  original.  None  of  the  translators  saw  even 
that  ■Koitiixa.  is  a  poem.     They  all  render  it  an  event. 


6  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

notice,  was  revived  in  the  present  generation  by  Niebuhr, 
a  man  who  would  have  been  the  first  writer  of  his  time, 
if  his  talent  for  communicating  truths  had  borne  any  pro- 
portion to  his  talent  for  investigating  them.  That  theory 
5  has  been  adopted  by  several  eminent  scholars  of  our  own 
country,  particularly  by  the  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  by  Pro- 
fessor Maiden,  and  by  the  lamented  Arnold.  It  appears 
to  be  now  generally  received  by  men  conversant  with 
classical  antiquity ;  and  indeed  it  rests  on  such  strong 

10  proofs,  both  internal  and  external,  that  it  will  not  be 
easily  subverted.  A  popular  exposition  of  this  theory, 
and  of  the  evidence  by  which  it  is  supported,  may  not  be 
without  interest  even  for  readers  who  are  unacquainted 
with  the  ancient  languages. 

15  The  Latin  literature  which  has  come  down  to  us  is  of 
later  date  than  the  commencement  of  the  Second  Punic 
War,  and  consists  almost  exclusively  of  works  fashioned 
on  Greek  models.  The  Latin  metres,  heroic,  elegiac,  lyric, 
and  dramatic,  are  of  Greek  origin.     The  best  Latin  epic 

20  poetry  is  the  feeble  echo  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey.  The 
best  Latin  eclogues  are  imitations  of  Theocritus.  The 
plan  of  the  most  finished  didactic  poem  in  the  Latin 
tongue  was  taken  from  Hesiod.  The  Latin  tragedies  are 
bad  copies  of  the  masterpieces  of  Sophocles  and  Eurip- 

25  ides.  The  Latin  comedies  are  free  translations  from 
Demophilus,  Menander,  and  Apollodorus.  The  Latin 
philosophy  was  borrowed,  without  alteration,  from  the  Por- 
tico and  the  Academy ;  and  the  great  Latin  orators  con- 
stantly proposed  to  themselves  as  patterns  the  speeches 

30  of  Demosthenes  and  Lysias. 

But  there  was  an  earlier  Latin  literature,  a  literature 
truly  Latin,  which  has  wholly  perished,  which  had,  indeed, 
almost  wholly  perished  long  before  those  whom  we  are  in 
the  habit  of  regarding  as  the  greatest  Latin  writers  were 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  1 

born.  That  literature  abounded  with  metrical  romances, 
such  as  are  found  in  every  country  where  there  is  much 
curiosity  and  intelligence,  but  little  reading  and  writing. 
All  human  beings  not  utterly  savage  long  for  some  infor- 
mation about  past  times,  and  are  delighted  by  narratives  5 
which  present  pictures  to  the  eye  of  the  mind.  But  it 
is  only  in  very  enlightened  communities  that  books  are 
readily  accessible.  Metrical  composition,  therefore,  which 
in  a  highly  civilized  nation  is  a  mere  luxury,  is  in  nations 
imperfectly  civilized  almost  a  necessary  of  life,  and  is  10 
valued  less  on  account  of  the  pleasure  which  it  gives  to 
the  ear  than  on  account  of  the  help  which  it  gives  to  the 
memory.  A  man  who  can  invent  or  embellish  an  interest- 
ing story,  and  put  it  into  a  form  which  others  may  easily 
retain  in  their  recollection,  will  always  be  highly  esteemed  15 
by  a  people  eager  for  amusement  and  information,  but 
destitute  of  libraries.  Such  is  the  origin  of  ballad-poetry, 
a  species  of  composition  which  scarcely  ever  fails  to  spring 
up  and  flourish  in  every  society  at  a  certain  point  in  the 
progress  towards  refinement.  Tacitus  informs  us  that  20 
songs  were  the  only  memorials  of  the  past  which  the 
ancient  Germans  possessed.  We  learn  from  Lucan  and 
from  Ammianus  Marcellinus  that  the  brave  actions  of  the 
ancient  Gauls  were  commemorated  in  the  verses  of  Bards. 
During  many  ages,  and  through  many  revolutions,  min-  25 
strelsy  retained  its  influence  over  both  the  Teutonic  and 
the  Celtic  race.  The  vengeance  exacted  by  the  spouse 
of  Attila  for  the  murder  of  Siegfried  was  celebrated  in 
rhymes,  of  which  Germany  is  still  justly  proud.  The 
exploits  of  Athelstane  were  commemorated  by  the  Anglo-  3° 
Saxons,  and  those  of  Canute  by  the  Danes,  in  rude  poems, 
of  which  a  few  fragments  have  come  down  to  us.  The 
chants  of  the  Welsh  harpers  preserved,  through  ages  of 
darkness,  a  faint  and  doubtful  memory  of   Arthur.     In 


8  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

the  Highlands  of  Scotland  may  still  be  gleaned  some 
relics  of  the  old  songs  about  Cuthullin  and  Fingal.  The 
long  struggle  of  the  Servians  against  the  Ottoman  power 
was  recorded  in  lays  full  of  martial  spirit.  We  learn  from 
5  Herrera  that,  when  a  Peruvian  Inca  died,  men  of  skill 
were  appointed  to  celebrate  him  in  verses,  which  all  the 
people  learned  by  heart  and  sang  in  public  on  days  of 
festival.  The  feats  of  Kurroglou,  the  great  freebooter 
of  Turkistan,  recounted  in  ballads  composed  by  himself, 

10  are  known  in  every  village  of  Northern  Persia.  Captain 
Beechey  heard  the  Bards  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  recite 
the  heroic  achievements  of  Tamehameha,  the  most  illus- 
trious of  their  kings.  Mungo  Park  found  in  the  heart  of 
Africa  a  class  of  singing-men,  the  only  annalists  of  their 

IS  rude  tribes,  and  heard  them  tell  the  story  of  the  victory 
which  Damel,  the  negro  prince  of  the  Jaloffs,  won  over 
Abdulkader,  the  Mussulman  tyrant  of  Foota  Torra.  This 
species  of  poetry  attained  a  high  degree  of  excellence 
among*  the  Castilians  before  they  began  to  copy  Tuscan 

20  patterns.  It  attained  a  still  higher  degree  of  excellence 
among  the  English  and  the  Lowland  Scotch  during  the 
fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries.  But  it 
reached  its  full  perfection  in  ancient  Greece ;  for  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  great  Homeric  poems  are  gener- 

25  ically  ballads,  though  widely  distinguished  from  all  other 
ballads,  and  indeed  from  almost  all  other  human  com- 
positions, by  transcendent  sublimity  and  beauty. 

As  it  is  agreeable  to  general  experience  that,  at  a  cer- 
tain stage  in  the  progress  of  society,  ballad-poetry  should 

30  flourish,  so  is  it  also  agreeable  to  general  experience  that, 
at  a  subsequent  stage  in  the  progress  of  society,  ballad- 
poetry  should  be  undervalued  and  neglected.  Knowledge 
advances  ;  manners  change ;  great  foreign  models  of  com- 
position are  studied  and  imitated.     The  phraseology  of 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  9 

the  old  minstrels  becomes  obsolete.  Their  versification, 
which,  having  received  its  laws  only  from  the  ear,  abounds 
in  irregularities,  seems  licentious  and  uncouth.  Their 
simplicity  appears  beggarly  when  compared  with  the 
quaint  forms  and  gaudy  coloring  of  such  artists  as  Cowley  5 
and  Gongora.  The  ancient  lays,  unjustly  despised  by 
the  learned  and  polite,  linger  for  a  time  in  the  memory  of 
the  vulgar,  and  are  at  length  too  often  irretrievably  lost. 
We  cannot  wonder  that  the  ballads  of  Rome  should  have 
altogether  disappeared,  when  we  remember  how  very  nar-  10 
rowly,  in  spite  of  the  invention  of  printing,  those  of  our 
own  country  and  those  of  Spain  escaped  the  same  fate. 
There  is  indeed  little  doubt  that  oblivion  covers  many 
English  songs  equal  to  any  that  were  published  by  Bishop 
Percy,  and  many  Spanish  songs  as  good  as  the  best  of  15 
those  which  have  been  so  happily  translated  by  Mr. 
Lockhart.  Eighty  years  ago  England  possessed  only  one 
tattered  copy  of  Childe  Waters  and  Sir  Cauline,  and  Spain 
only  one  tattered  copy  of  the  noble  poem  of  The  Cid. 
The  snuff  of  a  candle,  or  a  mischievous  dog,  might  in  a  20 
moment  have  deprived  the  world  forever  of  any  of  those 
fine  compositions.  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  united  to  the 
fire  of  a  great  poet  the  minute  curiosity  and  patient  dili- 
gence of  a  great  antiquary,  was  but  just  in  time  to  save 
the  precious  relics  of  the  Minstrelsy  of  the  Border.  In  25 
Germany,  the  lay  of  the  Nibelungs  had  been  long  utterly 
forgotten,  when,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  it  was  for  the 
first  time  printed  from  a  manuscript  in  the  old  library  of 
a  noble  family.  In  truth,  the  only  people  who,  through 
their  whole  passage  from  simplicity  to  the  highest  civili-  3° 
zation,  never  for  a  moment  ceased  to  love  and  admire 
their  old  ballads,  were  the  Greeks. 

That  the  early  Romans  should  have  had  ballad-poetry, 
and  that  this  poetry  should  have  perished,  is  therefore  not 


10  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

strange.  It  would,  on  the  contrary,  have  been  strange  if 
these  things  had  not  come  to  pass ;  and  we  should  be 
justified  in  pronouncing  them  highly  probable,  even  if 
we  had  no  direct  evidence  on  the  subject.  But  we  have 
5  direct  evidence  of  unquestionable  authority. 

Ennius,  who  flourished  in  the  time  of  the  Second  Punic 
War,  was  regarded  in  the  Augustan  age  as  the  father  of 
Latin  poetry.  He  was,  in  truth,  the  father  of  the  second 
school  of  Latin  poetry,  the  only  school  of  which  the  works 

lo  have  descended  to  us.  But  from  Ennius  himself  we  learn 
that  there  were  poets  who  stood  to  him  in  the  same  rela- 
tion in  which  the  author  of  the  romance  of  Count  Alarcos 
stood  to  Garcilaso,  or  the  author  of  the  Lytell  Geste  of 
Robyn  Hode  to  Lord  Surrey.     Ennius  speaks  of  verses 

15  which  the  Fauns  and  the  Bards  were  wont  to  chant  in  the 
old  time,  when  none  had  yet  studied  the  graces  of  speech, 
when  none  had  yet  climbed  the  peaks  sacred  to  the  God- 
desses of  Grecian  song.  "  Where,"  Cicero  mournfully 
asks,  "are  those  old  verses  now.?"^ 

1  '  Quid  ?     Nostri  veteres  versus  ubi  sunt  ? 

.  .  .  '■  Quos  olim  Fauni  vatesque  canebant 

Cum  neque  Musarum  scopulos  quisquam  superarat, 

Nee  dicti  studiosus  erat."  '  „      , 

Brtctus,  xviu. 

The  Muses,  it  should  be  observed,  are  Greek  divinities.  The  Italian 
Goddesses  of  verse  were  the  Camoenae.  At  a  later  period  the  appella- 
tions were  used  indiscriminately ;  but  in  the  age  of  Ennius  there  was 
probably  a  distinction.  In  the  epitaph  of  Naevius,  who  was  the  rep- 
resentative of  the  old  Italian  school  of  poetry,  the  Camoenae,  not  the 
Muses,  are  represented  as  grieving  for  the  loss  of  their  votary.  The 
'  Musarum  scopuli '  are  evidently  the  peaks  of  Parnassus. 

Scaliger,  in  a  note  on  Varro  {De  Lingua  Latina,  lib.  vi.),  suggests, 
with  great  ingenuity,  that  the  Fauns,  who  were  represented  by  the 
superstition  of  later  ages  as  a  race  of  monsters,  half  gods  and  half 
brutes,  may  really  have  been  a  class  of  men  who  e.xercised  in  Latium, 
at  a  very  remote  period,  the  same  functions  which  belonged  to  the 
Magians  in  Persia  and  to  the  Bards  in  Gaul. 


AUTHOR'S   PREFACE.  11 

Contemporary  with  Ennius  was  Quintus  Fabius  Pictor, 
the  earUest  of  the  Roman  annalists.  His  account  of  the 
infancy  and  youth  of  Romulus  and  Remus  has  been  pre- 
served by  Dionysius,  and  contains  a  very  remarkable  refer- 
ence to  the  ancient  Latin  poetry.  Fabius  says  that,  in  5 
his  time,  his  countrymen  were  still  in  the  habit  of  singing 
ballads  about  the  Twins.    "Even  in  the  hut  of  Faustulus," 

—  so  these  old  lays  appear  to  have  run,  —  "  the  children  of 
Rhea  and  Mars  were,  in  port  and  in  spirit,  not  like  unto 
swineherds  or  cowherds,  but  such  that  men  might  well  lo 
guess  them  to  be  of  the  blood  of  Kings  and  Gods."  ^ 

^  Oi  5e  duSpuOevTes  yivovrai,  Kara  re  d^luKTLv  nopcprjs  Kai  <ppovriiJ.aTos 
6yKOV,  ov  (Tvoipop^ots  /cat  ^ovi<6\oi^  ioiKores,  d\\  olovs  dv  rts  d^tcicreie 
Toi/s  eK  ^aaiKeiov  re  (pvvjas  yivov^,  Kai  awb  5aifj.6vuiv  ffwopas  yeviaOai 
vo/;itfojuf  coi's,  cJs  e'c  rors  irarpiois  'vp.vois  vvb  '  Voifxaiuv  tVt  /cat  vvv  aScrai. 

—  Dion.  Hal.  i.  79.  This  passage  has  sometimes  been  cited  as  if 
Dionysius  had  been  speaking  in  his  own  person,  and  had,  Greek  as 
he  was,  been  so  industrious  or  so  fortunate  as  to  discover  some 
valuable  remains  of  that  early  Latin  poetry  which  the  greatest  Latin 
writers  of  his  age  regretted  as  hopelessly  lost.  Such  a  supposition 
is  highly  improbable ;  and  indeed  it  seems  clear  from  the  context 
that  Dionysius,  as  Reiske  and  other  editors  evidently  thought,  was 
merely  quoting  from  Fabius  Pictor.  The  whole  passage  has  the  air 
of  an  extract  from  an  ancient  chronicle,  and  is  introduced  by  the 
words,  K6iVTOs  fx^v  <^d^ios,  6  HIktup  Xeyh/xevos,  TrjSe  ypdcpei. 

Another  argument  may  be  urged  which  seems  to  deserve  con- 
sideration. The  author  of  the  passage  in  question  mentions  a 
thatched  hut,  which  in  his  time  stood  between  the  summit  of  Mount 
Palatine  and  the  Circus.  This  hut,  he  says,  was  built  by  Romulus, 
and  was  constantly  kept  in  repair  at  the  public  charge,  but  never 
in  any  respect  embellished.  Now,  in  the  age  of  Dionysius  there 
certainly  was  at  Rome  a  thatched  hut,  said  to  have  been  that  of 
Romulus.  But  this  hut,  as  we  learn  from  Vitruvius,  stood,  not  near 
the  Circus,  but  in  the  Capitol  (Vit.  ii.  i).  If,  therefore,  we  under- 
stand Dionysius  to  speak  in  his  own  person,  we  can  reconcile  his 
statement  with  that  of  Vitruvius  only  by  supposing  that  there  were 
at  Rome,  in  the  Augustan  age,  two  thatched  huts,  both  believed  to 
have  been  built  by  Romulus,  and  both  carefully  repaired  and  held 


12  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Cato  the  Censor,  who  also  lived  in  the  days  of  the  Sec- 
ond Punic  War,  mentioned  this  lost  literature  in  his  lost 
work  on  the  antiquities  of  his  country.     Many  ages,  he 
said,  before  his  time,  there  were  ballads  in  praise  of  illus- 
5  trious  men  ;  and  these  ballads  it  was  the  fashion  for  the 

in  high  honor.  The  objections  to  such  a  supposition  seem  to  be 
strong.  Neither  Dionysius  nor  Vitruvius  speaks  of  more  than  one 
such  hut.  Dio  Cassius  informs  us  that  twice,  during  the  long  admin- 
istration of  x\ugustus,  the  hut  of  Romulus  caught  fire  (xlviii.  43,  liv. 
29).  Had  there  been  two  such  huts,  would  he  not  have  told  us 
of  which  he  spoke  ?  An  English  historian  would  hardly  give  an 
account  of  a  fire  at  Queen's  College  without  saying  whether  it  was  at 
Queen's  College,  Oxford,  or  at  Queen's  College,  Cambridge.  Marcus 
Seneca,  Macrobius,  and  Conon,  a  Greek  writer  from  whom  Photius 
has  made  large  extracts,  mention  only  one  hut  of  Romulus,  that  in 
the  Capitol  (M.  Seneca,  Contr.  i.  6;  Macrobius,  Sat.  i.  15;  Ehotius, 
Bibl.  186).  Ovid,  Livy,  Petronius,  Valerius  Maximus,  Lucius  Seneca, 
and  St.  Jerome  mention  only  one  hut  of  Romulus,  without  specify- 
ing the  site  (Ovid,  Fasti,  iii.  183 ;  Liv.  v.  53 ;  Petronius,  Fragm. ; 
Val.  Max.  iv.  4 ;  L.  Seneca,  Consolatio  ad  Helviam  ;  D.  Hieron.  Ad 
Patdiniamim  de  Didyind). 

The  whole  difficulty  is  removed  if  we  suppose  that  Dionysius  was 
merely  quoting  Fabius  Pictor.  Nothing  is  more  probable  than  that 
the  cabin,  which  in  the  time  of  Fabius  stood  near  the  Circus,  might, 
long  before  the  age  of  Augustus,  have  been  transported  to  the 
Capitol,  as  the  place  fittest,  by  reason  both  of  its  safety  and  of  its 
sanctity,  to  contain  so  precious  a  relic. 

The  language  of  Plutarch  confirms  this  hypothesis.  He  describes 
with  great  precision  the  spot  where  Romulus  dwelt,  on  the  slope  of 
Mount  Palatine  leading  to  the  Circus  ;  but  he  says  not  a  word  imply- 
ing that  the  dwelling  was  still  to  be  seen  there.  Lideed,  his  expres- 
sions imply  that  it  was  no  longer  there.  The  evidence  of  Solinus  is 
still  more  to  the  point.  He,  like  Plutarch,  describes  the  spot  where 
Romulus  had  resided,  and  says  expressly  that  the  hut  had  been 
there,  but  that  in  his  time  it  was  there  no  longer.  The  site,  it  is 
certain,  was  well  remembered ;  and  probably  retained  its  old  name, 
as  Charing  Cross  and  the  Haymarket  have  done.  This  is  probably 
the  explanation  of  the  words  '  Casa  Romuli '  in  Victor's  description 
of  the  Tenth  Region  of  Rome  under  Valentinian. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  13 

guests  at  banquets  to  sing  in  turn  while  the  piper  played. 
"Would,"  exclaims  Cicero,  "that  we  still  had  the  old 
ballads  of  which  Cato  speaks  !  "  ^ 

Valerius  Maximus  gives  us  exactl)'  similar  information, 
without  mentioning' his  authority,  and  observes  that  the  s 
ancient  Roman  ballads  were  probably  of  more  benefit  to 
the  young  than  all  the  lectures  of  the  Athenian  schools, 
and  that  to  the  influence  of  the  national  poetry  were  to  be 
ascribed  the  virtues  of  such  men  as  Camillus  and  Fabricius.^ 

Varro,  whose  authority  on  all  questions  connected  with  lo 
the  antiquities  of  his  country  is  entitled  to  the  greatest 
respect,  tells  us  that  at  banquets  it  was  once  the  fashion 
for  boys  to  sing,  sometimes  with  and  sometimes  without 
instrumental  music,  ancient  ballads  in  praise  of  men  of 
former  times.  These  young  performers,  he  observes,  were  15 
of  unblemished  character,  a  circumstance  which  he  prob- 
ably mentioned  because  among  the  Greeks,  and  indeed 
in  his  time  among  the  Romans  also,  the  morals  of  singing- 
boys  were  in  no  high  repute.^ 

1  Cicero  refers  twice  to  this  important  passage  in  Cato's  Antiqui- 
ties :  '  Gravissimus  auctor  in  Originibus  dixit  Cato,  morem  apud 
majores  liunc  epularum  fuisse,  ut  deinceps,  qui  accubarent,  canerent 
ad  tibiam  clarorum  virorum  laudes  atque  virtutes.  Ex  quo  perspi- 
cuum  est,  at  cantus  turn  fuisse  rescriptos  vocum  sonis,  et  carmina.' 

—  Tusc.  Qiicest.  iv.  2.  Again  :  '  Utinam  exstarent  ilia  carmina,  quse, 
multis  saeculis  ante  suam  setatem,  in  epulis  esse  cantitata  a  singulis 
convivis  de  clarorum  virorum  laudibus,  in  Originibus  scriptum  reli- 
quit  Cato.'  —  Brutics,  xix. 

2  '  Majores  natu  in  conviviis  ad  tibias  egregia  superiorum  opera 
carmine  comprehensa  pangebant,  quo  ad  ea  imitanda  juvcntutem 
alacriorem  redderent.  .  . .  Quas  Athenas,  quam  scholam,  quae  alieni- 
gena  studia  huic  domesticae  disciplinas  prsetulerim  ?  Inde  oriebantur 
Camilli,  Scipiones,  Fabricii,  Marcelli,  Fabii.'  —  Val.  Max.  ii.  i. 

3  '  In  conviviis  pueri  modesti  ut  cantarent  carmina  antiqua,  in 
quibus   laudes    erant    majorum,   et    assa   voce,   et    cum    tibicine.' 

—  Nonius,  Assa  voce  pro  sola. 


14  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME.     . 

The  testimony  of  Horace,  though  given  incidentally, 
confirms  the  statements  of  Cato,  Valerius  Maximus,  and 
Varro.  The  poet  predicts  that,  under  the  peaceful  admin- 
istration of  Augustus,  the  Romans  will,  over  their  full  gob- 
5  lets,  sing  to  the  pipe,  after  the  fashion  of  their  fathers,  the 
deeds  of  brave  captains,  and  the  ancient  legends  touching 
the  origin  of  the  city.^ 

The  proposition,  then,  that  Rome  had  ballad-poetry  is 
not  merely  in  itself  highly  probable,  but  is  fully  proved 
lo  by  direct  evidence  of  the  greatest  weight. 

This  proposition  being  established,  it  becomes  easy 
to  understand  why  the  early  history  of  the  city  is  un- 
like almost  everything  else  in  Latin  literature,  native 
where  almost  everything  else   is   borrowed,  imaginative 

15  where  almost  everything  else  is  prosaic.  We  can  scarcely 
hesitate  to  pronounce  that  the  magnificent,  pathetic,  and 
truly  national  legends,  which  present  so  striking  a  con- 
trast to  all  that  surrounds  them,  are  broken  and  defaced 
fragments  of  that  early  poetry  which,  even  in  the  age  of 

20  Cato  the  Censor,  had  become  antiquated,  and  of  which 

Tully  had  never  heard  a  line. 

That  this  poetry  should  have  been  suffered  to  perish 

will  not  appear  strange  when  we  consider  how  complete 

was  the  triumph  of  the  Greek  genius  over  the  public  mind 
•}%  of  Italy.     It  is  probable  that  at  an  early  period  Homer 

and  Herodotus  furnished  some  hints  to  the  Latin  min- 


1  '  Nosque  et  profestis  lucibus  et  sacris 
Inter  jocosi  munera  Liberi, 
Cum  prole  matronisque  nostris, 
Rite  Deos  prius  apprecati, 
Virtute  functos,  more  patrum,  duces, 
Lydis  remixto  carmine  tibiis, 
Trojamque  et  Anchisen  et  alniae 
Progeniem  Veneris  canemus.' 

Carm.  iv.  15. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  15 

strels;^  but  it  was  not  till  after  the  war  with  Pyrrhus  that 
the  poetry  of  Rome  began  to  put  off  its  old  Ausonian 
character.  The  transformation  was  soon  consummated. 
The  conquered,  says  Horace,  led  captive  the  conquerors. 
It  was  precisely  at  the  time  at  which  the  Roman  people  5 
rose  to  unrivalled  political  ascendancy  that  they  stooped  to 
pass  under  the  intellectual  yoke.  It  was  precisely  at  the 
time  at  which  the  sceptre  departed  from  Greece  that  the 
empire  of  her  language  and  of  her  arts  became  universal 
and  despotic.  The  revolution  indeed  was  not  effected  10 
without  a  struggle.  Naevius  seems  to  have  been  the  last 
of  the  ancient  line  of  poets.  Ennius  was  the  founder 
of  a  new  dynasty.  Naevius  celebrated  the  First  Punic 
War  in  Saturnian  verse,  the  old  national  verse  of  Italy.^ 

1  See  the  Preface  to  the  Lay  of  the  Battle  of  Regillus. 

2  Cicero  speaks  highly  in  more  than  one  place  of  this  poem  of 
Naevius  ;  Ennius  sneered  at  it,  and  stole  from  it. 

As  to  the  Saturnian  measure,  see  Hermann's  Elementa  Doct^-incB 
MetrioE,  iii.  9. 

The  Saturnian  line,  according  to  the  grammarians,  consisted  of 
two  parts.  The  first  was  a  catalectic  dimeter  iambic ;  the  second 
was  composed  of  three  trochees.  But  the  license  taken  by  the  early 
Latin  poets  seems  to  have  been  almost  boundless.  The  most  per- 
fect Saturnian  line  which  has  been  preserved  was  the  work,  not  of  a 
professional  artist,  but  of  an  amateur : 

'  Dabunt  malum  Metelli  Nffivio  poetas.' 

There  has  been  much  difference  of  opinion  among  learned  men 
respecting  the  history  of  this  measure.  That  it  is  the  same  with 
a  Greek  measure  used  by  Archilochus  is  indisputable.  (Bentley, 
Phalaris,  xi.)  But  in  spite  of  the  authority  of  Terentianus  Maurus, 
and  of  the  still  higher  authority  of  Bentley,  we  may  venture  to  doubt 
whether  the  coincidence  was  not  fortuitous.  We  constantly  find 
the  same  rude  and  simple  numbers  in  different  countries,  under  cir- 
cumstances which  make  it  impossible  to  suspect  that  there  has  been 
imitation  on  either  side.  Bishop  lleber  heard  the  children  of  a  vil- 
lage in  Bengal  singing  '  Radha,  Radha,'  to  the  tune  of  '  My  boy  Billy.' 


16  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Ennius  sang  the  Second  Punic  War  in  numbers  borrowed 
from  the  Iliad.  The  elder  poet,  in  the  epitaph  which  he 
wrote  for  himself,  and  which  is  a  fine  specimen  of  the 
early  Roman  diction  and  versification,  plaintively  boasted 

Neither  the  Castilian  nor  the  German  minstrels  of  the  Middle  Ages 
owed  anything  to  Paros  or  to  ancient  Rome.  Yet  both  the  poem 
of  the  Cid  and  the  poem  of  the  Nibelungs  contain  many  Saturnian 
verses ;  as  — 

'  Estas  nuevas  d  mio  Cid  eran  venidas.' 
'  A  mi  lo  dicen  ;  i.  ti  dan  las  orejades.' 

'  Man  mohte  michel  wunder  von  Sifride  sagen.' 
'  \Va  ich  den  Kiinic  vinde  daz  sol  man  mir  sagen.' 

Indeed  there  cannot  be  a  more  perfect  Saturnian  line  than  one  which 
is  sung  in  every  English  nursery  — 

'  The  queen  was  in  her  parlor  eating  bread  and  honey  ; ' 

yet  the  author  of  this  line,  we  may  be  assured,  borrowed  nothing 
from  either  Nsevius  or  Archilochus. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that,  two  or 
three  hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Ennius,  some  Latin  minstrel 
may  have  visited  Sybaris  or  Crotona,  may  have  heard  some  verses 
of  Archilochus  sung,  may  have  been  pleased  with  the  metre,  and 
may  have  introduced  it  at  Rome.  Thus  much  is  certain,  that  the 
Saturnian  measure,  if  not  a  native  of  Italy,  was  at  least  so  early 
and  so  completely  naturalized  there  that  its  foreign  origin  was 
forgotten. 

Bentley  says,  indeed,  that  the  Saturnian  measure  was  first  brought 
from  Greece  into  Italy  by  Naevius.  But  this  is  merely  odtfer  dictum, 
to  use  a  phrase  common  in  our  courts  of  law,  and  would  not  have 
been  deliberately  maintained  by  that  incomparable  critic,  whose 
memory  is  held  in  reverence  by  all  lovers  of  learning.  The  argu- 
ments which  might  be  brought  against  Bentley's  assertion  —  for  it 
is  mere  assertion,  supported  by  no  evidence  —  are  innumerable.  A 
few  will  suffice. 

I.  Bentley's  assertion  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  Ennius. 
Ennius  sneered  at  Naevius  for  writing  on  the  First  Punic  War  in 
verses  such  as  the  old  Italian  bards  used  before  Greek  literature 
had   been   studied.     Now  the  poem  of  Naevius  was  in    Saturnian 


AUTHOR'S   PREFACE.  17 

that  the  Latin  language  had  died  with  him.^  Thus,  what 
to  Horace  appeared  to  be  the  first  faint  dawn  of  Roman 
Hterature,  appeared  to  Navius  to  be  its  hopeless  setting. 
In  truth,  one  literature  was  setting  and  another  dawning. 

The  victory  of  the  foreign  taste  was  decisive  ;  and  indeed  5 
we  can  hardly  blame  the  Romans  for  turning  away  with 
contempt  from  the  rude  lays  which  had  delighted  their 
fathers,  and  giving  their  whole  admiration  to  the  immortal 
productions  of  Greece.  The  national  romances,  neglected 
by  the  great  and  the  refined  whose  education  had  been  10 
finished  at  Rhodes  or  Athens,  continued,  it  may  be  sup- 
verse.  Is  it  possible  that  Ennius  could  have  used  such  expressions 
if  the  Saturnian  verse  had  been  just  imported  from  Greece  for  the 
first  time  ? 

2.  Bentley's  assertion  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  Horace. 
'  When  Greece,'  says  Horace, '  introduced  her  arts  into  our  uncivilized 
country,  those  rugged  Saturnian  numbers  passed  away.'  Would 
Horace  have  said  this  if  the  Saturnian  numbers  had  been  imported 
from  Greece  just  before  the  hexameter? 

3.  Bentley's  assertion  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  Festus  and 
of  Aurelius  Victor,  both  of  whom  positively  say  that  the  most  ancient 
prophecies  attributed  to  the  Fauns  were  in  Saturnian  verse. 

4.  Bentley's  assertion  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  Terentianus 
Maurus,  to  whom  he  has  himself  appealed.  Terentianus  Maurus 
does  indeed  say  that  the  Saturnian  measure,  though  believed  by 
the  Romans  from  a  very  early  period  ('  credidit  vetustas ' )  to  be  of 
Italian  invention,  was  really  borrowed  from  the  Greeks.  But  Teren- 
tianus Maurus  does  not  say  that  it  was  first  borrowed  by  Naevius. 
Nay,  the  expressions  used  by  Terentianus  Maurus  clearly  imply  the 
contrary ;  for  how  could  the  Romans  have  believed,  from  a  very 
early  period,  that  this  measure  was  the  indigenous  production  of 
Latium,  if  it  was  really  brought  over  from  Greece  in  an  age  of  intel- 
ligence and  liberal  curiosity,  in  the  age  which  gave  birth  to  Ennius, 
Plautus,  Cato  the  Censor,  and  other  distinguished  writers .''  If 
Bentley's  assertion  were  correct,  there  could  have  been  no  more 
doubt  at  Rome  about  the  Greek  origin  of  the  Saturnian  measure 
than  about  the  Greek  origin  of  hexameters  or  Sapphics. 

1  Aulus  Gellius,  Nodes  Attica: ,  i.  24. 


18  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

posed,  during  some  generations  to  delight  the  vulgar. 
While  Virgil,  in  hexameters  of  exquisite  modulation, 
described  the  sports  of  rustics,  those  rustics  were  still 
singing  their  wild  Saturnian  ballads.^  It  is  not  improb- 
5  able  that,  at  the  time  when  Cicero  lamented  the  irreparable 
loss  of  the  poems  mentioned  by  Cato,  a  search  among  the 
nooks  of  the  Apennines  as  active  as  the  search  which  Sir 
Walter  Scott  made  among  the  descendants  of  the  moss- 
troopers of  Liddesdale  might  have  brought  to  light  many 

lo  fine  remains  of  ancient  minstrelsy.  No  such  search  was 
made.  The  Latin  ballads  perished  forever.  Yet  discern- 
ing critics  have  thought  that  they  could  still  perceive 
in  the  early  history  of  Rome  numerous  fragments  of  this 
lost  poetry,  as  the  traveller  on  classic  ground  sometimes 

15  finds,  built  into  the  heavy  wall  of  a  fort  or  convent,  a  pillar 
rich  with  acanthus  leaves,  or  a  frieze  where  the  Amazons 
and  Bacchanals  seem  to  live.  The  theatres  and  temples 
of  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  were  degraded  into  the  quar- 
ries of  the  Turk  and  the  Goth.     Even  so  did  the  ancient 

20  Saturnian  poetry  become  the  quarry  in  which  a  crowd  of 

orators  and  annalists  found  the  materials  for  their  prose. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  process  by  which  the  old 

songs  were    transmuted    into    the  form  which  they  now 

wear.     Funeral  panegyric  and  chronicle  appear  to  have 

25  been  the  intermediate  links  which  connected  the  lost 
ballads  with  the  histories  now  extant.  From  a  very  early 
period  it  was  the  usage  that  an  oration  should  be  pro- 
nounced over  the  remains  of  a  noble  Roman.  The  orator, 
as  we  learn  from  Polybius,  was  expected  on  such  an  occa- 

30  sion  to  recapitulate  all  the  services  which  the  ancestors  of 
the  deceased  had,  from  the  earliest  time,  rendered  to  the 
commonwealth.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  speaker 
on  whom  this  duty  was  imposed  would  make  use  of  all  the 

^  See  Servius,  in  Georg.  ii.  385. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  19 

stories  suited  to  his  purpose  which  were  to  be  found  in  the 
popular  lays.  There  can  be  as  little  doubt  that  the  family 
of  an  eminent  man  would  preserve  a  copy  of  the  speech 
which  had  been  pronounced  over  his  corpse.  The  com- 
pilers of  the  early  chronicles  would  have  recourse  to  these  5 
speeches;  and  the  great  historians  of  a  later  period  would 
have  recourse  to  the  chronicles. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  select  a  particular  story,  and 
to  trace  its  probable  progress  through  these  stages.  The 
description  of  the  migration  of  the  Fabian  house  to  10 
Cremera  is  one  of  the  finest  of  the  many  fine  passages 
which  lie  thick  in  the  earlier  books  of  Livy.  The  Consul, 
clad  in  his  military  garb,  stands  in  the  vestibule  of  his 
house,  marshalling  his  clan,  three  hundred  and  six  fighting 
men,  all  of  the  same  proud  patrician  blood,  all  worthy  to  15 
be  attended  by  the  fasces  and  to  command  the  legions. 
A  sad  and  anxious  retinue  of  friends  accompanies  the 
adventurers  through  the  streets;  but  the  voice  of  lamen- 
tation is  drowned  by  the  shouts  of  admiring  thousands. 

As  the  procession  passes  the  Capitol,  prayers  and  vows  20 
are  poured  forth,  but  in  vain.     The  devoted  band,  leaving 
Janus  on  the  right,  marches  to  its  doom  through  the  Gate 
of  Evil  Luck.     After  achieving  high  deeds  of  valor  against 
overwhelming  numbers,  all  perish  save  one  child,  the  stock 
from  which  the  great  Fabian  race  was  destined  again  to  25 
spring    for  the  safety  and  glory  of   the  commonwealth. 
That  this  fine  romance,  the  details  of  which  are  so  full 
of  poetical  truth,  and  so  utterly  destitute  of  all  show  of 
historical  truth,  came  originally  from  some  lay  which  had 
often  been  sung  with  great  applause  at  banquets,  is  in  the  30 
highest  degree  probable.     Nor  is  it  difficult  to  imagine  a 
mode  in  which  the  transmission  might  have  taken  place. 

The    celebrated    Quintus   Fabius  Maximus,  who  died 
about  twenty  years  before  the  First  Punic  War,  and  more 


20  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

than  forty  years  before  Eiinius  was  born,  is  said  to  have 
been  interred  with  extraordinary  pomp.  In  the  eulogy 
pronounced  over  his  body  all  the  great  exploits  of  his 
ancestors  were  doubtless  recounted  and  exaggerated.  If 
5  there  were  then  extant  songs  which  gave  a  vivid  and  touch- 
ing description  of  an  event,  the  saddest  and  the  most 
glorious  in  the  long  history  of  the  Fabian  house,  nothing 
could  be  more  natural  than  that  the  panegyrist  should 
borrow  from  such  songs  their  finest  touches,  in  order  to 

lo  adorn  his  speech.  A  few  generations  later  the  songs  would 
perhaps  be  forgotten,  or  remembered  only  by  shepherds 
and  vine-dressers.  But  the  speech  would  certainly  be 
preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Fabian  nobles.  Fabius 
Pictor  would  be  well  acquainted  with  a  document  so  inter- 

15  esting  to  his  personal  feelings,  and  would  insert  large 
extracts  from  it  in  his  rude  chronicle.  That  chronicle, 
as  we  know,  was  the  oldest  to  which  Livy  had  access. 
Livy  would  at  a  glance  distinguish  the  bold  strokes  of  the 
forgotten  poet  from  the  dull  and  feeble  narrative  by  which 

20  they  were  surrounded,  would  retouch  them  with  a  delicate 
and  powerful  pencil,  and  would  make  them  immortal. 

That  this  might  happen  at  Rome  can  scarcely  be 
doubted ;  for  something  very  like  this  has  happened  in 
several  countries,  and,  among  others,  in  our  own.     Perhaps 

25  the  theory  of  Perizonius  cannot  be  better  illustrated  than 
by  showing  that  what  he  supposes  to  have  taken  place  in 
ancient  times  has,  beyond  all  doubt,  taken  place  in  modern 
times. 

"History,"  says  Hume  with  the  utmost  gravity,  "has 

30  preserved  some  instances  of  Edgar's  amours,  from  which, 
as  from  a  specimen,  we  may  form  a  conjecture  of  the  rest." 
He  then,  tells  very  agreeably  the  stories  of  Elfleda  and 
Elfrida,  two  stories  which  have  a  most  suspicious  air  of 
romance,   and   which    indeed    greatly  resemble,   in    their 


AUTHOR'S   PREFACE.  21 

general  character,  some  of  the  legends  of  early  Rome.  He 
cites,  as  his  authority  for  these  two  tales,  the  chronicle  of 
William  of  Malmesbury,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  King 
Stephen.  The  great  majority  of  readers  suppose  that  the 
device  by  which  Elfrida  was  substituted  for  her  young  5 
mistress,  the  artifice  by  which  Athelwold  obtained  the 
hand  of  Elfrida,  the  detection  of  that  artifice,  the  hunting 
party,  and  the  vengeance  of  the  amorous  king,  are  things 
about  which  there  is  no  more  doubt  than  about  the  execu- 
tion of  Anne  Boleyn  or  the  slitting  of  Sir  John  Coventry's  10 
nose.  But  when  we  turn  to  William  of  Malmesbury,  we 
find  that  Hume,  in  his  eagerness  to  relate  these  pleasant 
fables,  has  overlooked  one  very  important  circumstance. 
William  does  indeed  tell  both  the  stories  ;  but  he  gives 
us  distinct  notice  that  he  does  not  warrant  their  truth,  15 
and  that  they  rest  on  no  better  authority  than  that  of 
ballads.^ 

Such  is  the  way  in  which  these  two  well-known  tales 
have  been  handed  down.  They  originally  appeared  in  a 
poetical  form.  They  found  their  way  from  ballads  into  20 
an  old  chronicle.  The  ballads  perished  ;  the  chronicle 
remained.  A  great  historian,  some  centuries  after  the 
ballads  had  been  altogether  forgotten,  consulted  the 
chronicle.  He  was  struck  by  the  lively  coloring  of  these 
ancient  fictions  ;  he  transferred  them  to  his  pages ;  and  25 
thus  we  find  inserted,  as  unquestionable  facts,  in  a  narra- 
tive which  is  likely  to  last  as  long  as  the  English  tongue, 
the  inventions  of  some  minstrel  whose  works  were  prob- 
ably never  committed  to  writing,  whose  name  is  buried 
in  oblivion,  and  whose  dialect  has  become  obsolete.     It  3° 

1 '  Infamias  quas  post  dicam  magis  resperserunt  cantilenae.'  Edgar 
appears  to  have  been  most  mercilessly  treated  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
ballads.  He  was  the  favorite  of  the  monks;  and  the  monks  and 
the  minstrels  were  at  deadly  feud. 


22  LJVS   OF  ANCIENT  KOME. 

must,  then,  be  admitted  to  be  possible,  or  rather  highly 
probable,  that  the  stories  of  Romulus  and  Remus,  and  of 
the  Horatii  and  Curiatii,  may  have  had  a  similar  origin. 
Castilian  literature  will  furnish  us  with  another  parallel 
5  case.  Mariana,  the  classical  historian  of  Spain,  tells  the 
story  of  the  ill-starred  marriage  which  the  King  Don 
Alonzo  brought  about  between  the  heirs  of  Carrion  and 
the  two  daughters  of  the  Cid.  The  Cid  bestowed  a  princely 
dower  on  his  sons-in-law.     But  the  young  men  were  base 

10  and  proud,  cowardly  and  cruel.  They  were  tried  in  dan- 
ger, and  found  wanting.  They  fled  before  the  Moors, 
and  once,  when  a  lion  broke  out  of  his  den,  they  ran  and 
crouched  in  an  unseemly  hiding-place.  They  knew  that 
they  were  despised,  and  took  counsel  how  they  might  be 

15  avenged.  They  parted  from  their  father-in-law  with  many 
signs  of  love,  and  set  forth  on  a  journey  with  Doha  Elvira 
and  Doiia  Sol.  In  a  solitary  place  the  bridegrooms  seized 
their  brides,  stripped  them,  scourged  them,  and  departed, 
leaving  them  for  dead.     But  one  of  the  house  of  Bivar, 

20  suspecting  foul  play,  had  followed  the  travellers  in  dis- 
guise. The  ladies  were  brought  back  safe  to  the  house 
of  their  father.  Complaint  was  made  to  the  king.  It 
was  adjudged  by  the  Cortes  that  the  dower  given  by  the 
Cid  should  be  returned,  and  that  the  heirs  of  Carrion, 

25  together  with  one  of  their  kindred,  should  do  battle 
against  three  knights  of  the  party  of  the  Cid.  The  guilty 
youths  would  have  declined  the  combat;  but  all  their 
shifts  were  vain.  They  were  vanquished  in  the  lists  and 
forever  disgraced,  while  their  injured  wives  were  sought 

30  in  marriage  by  great  princes.^ 

Some  Spanish  writers   have   labored   to  show,  by  an 
examination  of  dates  and  circumstances,  that  this  story 
is  untrue.     Such  confutation  was  surely  not  needed  ;  for 
1  Mariana,  lib.  x.  cap.  4. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  23 

the  narrative  is  on  the  face  of  it  a  romance.  How  it 
found  its  way  into  Mariana's  history  is  quite  clear.  He 
acknowledges  his  obligations  to  the  ancient  chronicles, 
and  had  doubtless  before  him  the  Cronica  del  famoso  Ca- 
vallero  Cid  Riiy  Diez  Campeador,  which  had  been  printed  5 
as  early  as  the  year  1552.  He  little  suspected  that  all  the 
most  striking  passages  in  this  chronicle  were  copied  from 
a  poem  of  the  twelfth  century,  a  poem  of  which  the  lan- 
guage and  versification  had  long  been  obsolete,  but  which 
glowed  with  no  common  portion  of  the  fire  of  the  Iliad.  10 
Yet  such  was  the  fact.  More  than  a  century  and  a  half 
after  the  death  of  Mariana,  this  venerable  ballad,  of  which 
one  imperfect  copy  on  parchment,  four  hundred  years  old, 
had  been  preserved  at  Bivar,  was  for  the  first  time  printed. 
Then  it  was  found  that  every  interesting  circumstance  of  15 
the  story  of  the  heirs  of  Carrion  was  derived  by  the  elo- 
quent Jesuit  from  a  song  of  which  he  had  never  heard, 
and  which  was  composed  by  a  minstrel  whose  very  name 
had  long  been  forgotten.-^ 

Such,  or  nearly  such,  appears  to  have  been  the  process  20 
by  which  the  lost  ballad-poetry  of  Rome  was  transformed 
into  history.     To  reverse  that  process,  to  transform  some 
portions  of  early  Roman  history  back  into  the  poetry  out 
of  which  they  were  made,  is  the  object  of  this  work. 

In  the  following  poems  the  author  speaks,  not  in  his  25 
own  person,  but  in  the  persons  of  ancient  minstrels  who 
know  only  what  a  Roman  citizen,  born  three  or  four  hun- 
dred years  before  the  Christian  era,  may  be  supposed  to 
have  known,  and  who  are  in  nowise  above  the  passions 

1  See  the  account  which  Sanchez  gives  of  the  Bivar  manuscript 
in  the  first  volume  of  the  Coleccion  de  Poesias  Castellanas  atiteriores 
al  Siglo  XV.  Part  of  the  story  of  the  lords  of  Carrion,  in  the  poem 
of  the  Cid,  has  been  translated  by  Mr.  Frere  in  a  manner  above  all 
praise. 


24  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

and  prejudices  of  their  age  and  nation.  To  these  imagi- 
nary poets  must  be  ascribed  some  blunders  which  are  so 
obvious  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  point  them  out.  The 
real  blunder  would  have  been  to  represent  these  old  poets 
5  as  deeply  versed  in  general  history  and  studious  of  chron- 
ological accuracy.  To  them  must  also  be  attributed  the 
illiberal  sneers  at  the  Greeks,  the  furious  party-spirit,  the 
contempt  for  the  arts  of  peace,  the  love  of  war  for  its 
own  sake,  the  ungenerous  exultation  over  the  vanquished, 

lo  which  the  reader  will  sometimes  observe.  To  portray  a 
Roman  of  the  age  of  Camillus  or  Curius  as  superior  to 
national  antipathies,  as  mourning  over  the  devastation 
and  slaughter  by  which  empire  and  triumphs  were  to  be 
won,  as  looking  on  human  suffering  with  the  sympathy  of 

15  Howard,  or  as  treating  conquered  enemies  with  the  deli- 
cacy of  the  Black  Prince,  would  be  to  violate  all  dramatic 
propriety.  The  old  Romans  had  some  great  virtues,  ■ — 
fortitude,  temperance,  veracity,  spirit  to  resist  oppression, 
respect  for  legitimate  authority,  fidelity  in  the  observing 

20  of  contracts,  disinterestedness,  ardent  patriotism  ;  but 
Christian  charity  and  chivalrous  generosity  were  alike 
unknown  to  them. 

It  would  have  been  obviously  improper  to  mimic  the 
manner  of  any  particular  age  or  country.     Something  has 

25  been  borrowed,  however,  from  our  own  old  ballads,  and 
more  from  Sir  Walter  Scott,  the  great  restorer  of  our 
ballad-poetry.  To  the  Iliad  still  greater  obligations  are 
due ;  and  those  obligations  have  been  contracted  with 
the  less  hesitation,  because  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 

30  some  of  the  old  Latin  minstrels  really  had  recourse  to 
that  inexhaustible  store  of  poetical  images. 

It  would  have  been  easy  to  swell  this  little  volume  to 
a  very  considerable  bulk  by  appending  notes  filled  with 
quotations ;  but  to  a  learned  reader  such  notes  are  not 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  25 

necessary  ;  for  an  unlearned  reader  they  would  have  little 
interest;  and  the  judgment  passed  both  by  the  learned 
and  by  the  unlearned  on  a  work  of  the  imagination  will 
always  depend  much  more  on  the  general  character  and 
spirit  of  such  a  work  than  on  minute  details.  5 


ROME    UNDER    THE    KINGS. 


1.  "  Square  Rome"  {Roma  Qtiadraia),  the  city  of  Romulus. 

2.  The  Comitium. 

3.  The  Sabine  City. 

4.  The  Latin  Gate. 


HORATIUS. 


There  can  be  little  doubt  that  among  those  parts  of 
early  Roman  history  which  had  a  poetical  origin  was  the 
legend  of  Horatius  Codes.  We  have  several  versions  of 
the  story,  and  these  versions  differ  from  each  other  in 
points  of  no  small  importance.  Polybius,  there  is  reason  5 
to  believe,  heard  the  tale  recited  over  the  remains  of  some 
Consul  or  Praetor  descended  from  the  old  Horatian  patri- 
cians ;  for  he  introduces  it  as  a  specimen  of  the  narratives 
with  which  the  Romans  were  in  the  habit  of  embellishing 
their  funeral  oratory.  It  is  remarkable  that,  according  to  lo 
him,  Horatius  defended  the  bridge  alone,  and  perished 
in  the  waters.  According  to  the  chronicles  which  Livy 
and  Dionysius  followed,  Horatius  had  two  companions, 
swam  safe  to  shore,  and  was  loaded  with  honors  and 
rewards.  15 

These  discrepancies  are  easily  explained.  Our  own 
literature,  indeed,  will  furnish  an  exact  parallel  to  what 
may  have  taken  place  at  Rome.  It  is  highly  probable 
that  the  memory  of  the  war  of  Porsena  was  preserved  by 
compositions  much  resembling  the  two  ballads  which  20 
stand  first  in  the  Relics  of  Ancient  English  Poetry.  In 
both  those  ballads  the  English,  commanded  by  the  Percy, 
fight  with  the  Scots,  commanded  by  the  Douglas.  In 
one  of  the  ballads  the  Douglas  is  killed  by  a  nameless 
English  archer,  and  the  Percy  by  a  Scottish  spearman  ;  25 
in  the  other  the  Percy  slays  the  Douglas  in  single  com- 
bat, and  is  himself  made   prisoner.      In  the  former  Sir 

27 


28  LAi'S   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Hugh  Montgomery  is  shot  through  the  heart  by  a  North- 
umbrian bowman;  in  the  latter  he  is  taken,  and  exchanged 
for  the  Percy.  Yet  both  the  ballads  relate  to  the  same 
event,  and  that  an  event  which  probably  took  place  within 
'  5  the  memory  of  persons  who  were  alive  when  both  the 
ballads  were  made.     One  of  the  minstrels  says  : 

"  Old  men  that  knowen  the  grounde  well  yenoughe 
Call  it  the  battell  of  Otterburn  : 
At  Otterburn  began  this  spurne 
lo  Upon  a  monnyn  day. 

Ther  was  the  dougghte  Doglas  slean  : 
The  Perse  never  went  away." 

The  other  poet  sums  up  the   event  in  the  following 

lines: 
15  "  Thys  fraye  bygan  at  Otterborne 

Bytwene  the  nyghte  and  the  day  : 
Ther  the  Dowglas  lost  hys  lyfe, 
And  the  Percy  was  lede  away." 

It  is  by  no   means  unlikely  that  there  were  two  old 
20  Roman  lays  about  the  defence  of  the  bridge ;  and  that, 
while  the  story  which  Livy  has  transmitted  to  us  was  pre- 
ferred by  the  multitude,  the  other,   which  ascribed  the 
whole  glory  to  Horatius  alone,  may  have  been  the  favorite 
with  the  Horatian  house. 
25      The  following  ballad  is  supposed  to  have  been  made 
about  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  after  the  war  which  it 
celebrates,  and  just  before  the  taking  of  Rome  by  the 
Gauls.     The  author  seems  to  have  been  an  honest  citizen, 
proud  of  the  military  glory  of  his  country,  sick  of  the  dis- 
30  putes  of  factions,  and  much  given  to  pining  after  good 
old  times  which  had  never  really  existed.     The  allusion, 
however,  to  the  partial  manner  in  which  the  public  lands 
were  allotted,  could  proceed  only  from  a  plebeian  ;  and 


HORA  TIUS.  29 

the  allusion  to  the  fraudulent  sale  of  spoils  marks  the 
date  of  the  poem,  and  shows  that  the  poet  shared  in  the 
general  discontent  with  which  the  proceedings  of  Camillus, 
after  the  taking  of  Veil,  were  regarded. 

The  penultimate  syllable  of  the  name  Porsena  has  been    5 
shortened  in  spite  of  the  authority  of  Niebuhr,  who  pro- 
nounces, without  assigning  any  ground  for  his  opinion, 
that  Martial  was  guilty  of  a  decided  blunder  in  the  line, 

"  Hanc  spectare  manum  Porsena  non  potuit." 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  how  any  modern  scholar,  10 
whatever  his  attainments  may  be,  —  and  those  of  Niebuhr 
were  undoubtedly  immense, — can  venture  to  pronounce 
that  Martial  did  not  know  the  quantity  of  a  word  which 
he  must  have  uttered  and  heard  uttered  a  hundred  times 
before  he  left  school.  Niebuhr  seems  also  to  have  for-  15 
gotten  that  Martial  has  fellow-culprits  to  keep  him  in 
countenance.  Horace  has  committed  the  same  decided 
blunder ;  for  he  gives  us,  as  a  pure  iambic  line, 

"Minacis  aut  Etrusca  Porsenae  manus." 

Silius  Italicus  has  repeatedly  offended  in  the  same  way,  20 
as  when  he  says, 

"  Cernitur  effugiens  ardentem  Porsena  dextram  :  " 

and  again, 

"  Clusinum  vulgus,  cum,  Porsena  magna,  jubebas." 

A  modern  writer  may  be  content  to  err  in  such  company.  25 

Niebuhr's  supposition,  that  each  of  the  three  defenders 
of  the  bridge  was  the  representative  of  one  of  the  three 
patrician  tribes,  is  both  ingenious  and  probable,  and  has 
been  adopted  in  the  following  poem. 


30  LAVS  OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

HORATIUS. 

A    LAY    MADE    ABOUT    THE    YEAR    OF    THE    CITY    CCCLX. 


Lars  Porsena  of  Clusium 

By  the  Nine  Gods  he  swore 
That  the  great  house  of  Tarquin 

Should  suffer  wrong  no  more. 
By  the  Nine  Gods  he  swore  it,  5 

And  named  a  trysting  day, 
And  bade  his  messengers  ride  forth. 
East  and  west  and  south  and  north, 

To  summon  his  array. 

II. 

East  and  west  and  south  and  north  lo 

The  messengers  ride  fast, 
And  tower  and  town  and  cottage 

Have  heard  the  trumpet's  blast. 
Shame  on  the  false  Etruscan 

Who  lingers  in  his  home,  15 

When  Porsena  of  Clusium 

Is  on  the  march  for  Rome  ! 

III. 

The  horsemen  and  the  footmen 

Are  pouring  in  amain 
From  many  a  stately  market-place,  20 

From  many  a  fruitful  plain  ; 
From  many  a  lonely  hamlet, 

Which,  hid  by  beech  and  pine. 


HORA  TIUS.  31 

Like  an  eagle's  nest,  hangs  on  the  crest 

Of  purple  Apennine  ;  25 

IV. 

From  lordly  Volaterrs, 

Where  scowls  the  far-famed  hold 
Piled  by  the  hands  of  giants 

For  godlike  kings  of  old ; 
From  sea-girt  Populonia,  30 

Whose  sentinels  descry 
Sardinia's  snowy  mountain-tops 

Fringing  the  southern  sky ; 


From  the  proud  mart  of  Pisae, 

Queen  of  the  western  waves,  35 

Where  ride  Massilia's  triremes 

Heavy  with  fair-haired  slaves  ; 
From  where  sweet  Clanis  wanders 

Through  corn  and  vines  and  flowers; 
From  where  Cortona  lifts  to  heaven  4° 

Her  diadem  of  towers. 

VI. 

Tall  are  the  oaks  whose  acorns 

Drop  in  dark  Auser's  rill ; 
Fat  are  the  stags  that  champ  the  boughs 

Of  the  Ciminian  hill ;  45 

Beyond  all  streams  Clitumnus 

Is  to  the  herdsman  dear ; 
Best  of  all  pools  the  fowler  loves 

The  great  Volsinian  mere. 


32  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 


VII. 


But  now  no  stroke  of  woodman  50 

Is  heard  by  Auser's  rill ; 
No  hunter  tracks  the  stag's  green  path 

Up  the  Ciminian  hill ; 
Unwatched  along  Clitumnus 

Grazes  the  milk-white  steer;  55 

Unharmed  the  water-fowl  may  dip 

In  the  Volsinian  mere. 


The  harvests  of  Arretium 

This  year  old  men  shall  reap  ; 
This  year  young  boys  in  Umbro  60 

Shall  plunge  the  struggling  sheep ; 
And  in  the  vats  of  Luna 

This  year  the  must  shall  foam 
Round  the  white  feet  of  laughing  girls, 

Whose  sires  have  marched  to  Rome.  65 

IX. 

There  be  thirty  chosen  prophets, 

The  wisest  of  the  land, 
Who  alway  by  Lars  Porsena 

Both  morn  and  evening  stand  ; 
Evening  and  morn  the  Thirty  70 

Have  turned  the  verses  o'er. 
Traced  from  the  right  on  linen  white 

By  mighty  seers  of  yore. 


And  with  one  voice  the  Thirty 

Have  their  glad  answer  given  :  75 


HORA  TIUS.  12, 

"  Go  forth,  go  forth,  Lars  Porsena  ; 

Go  forth,  beloved  of  Heaven  ; 
Go,  and  return  in  glory 

To  Clusium's  royal  dome, 
And  hang  round  Nurscia's  altars  80 

The  golden  shields  of  Rome." 

XI. 

And  now  hath  every  city 

Sent  up  her  tale  of  men  ; 
The  foot  are  fourscore  thousand, 

The  horse  are  thousands  ten.  85 

Before  the  gates  of  Sutrium 

Is  met  the  great  array. 
A  proud  man  was  Lars  Porsena 

Upon  the  trysting  day, 

XII. 

For  all  the  Etruscan  armies  90 

Were  ranged  beneath  his  eye. 
And  many  a  banished  Roman, 

And  many  a  stout  ally ; 
And  with  a  mighty  following 

To  join  the  muster  came  95 

The  Tusculan  Mamilius, 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name. 

XIII. 

But  by  the  yellow  Tiber 

Was  tumult  and  affright ; 
From  all  the  spacious  champaign  100 

To  Rome  men  took  their  fligfht. 


34  LA  VS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

A  mile  around  the  city 

The  throng  stopped  up  the  ways ; 

A  fearful  sight  it  was  to  see 

Through  two  long  nights  and  days.  105 

XIV. 

For  aged  folk  on  crutches, 

And  women  great  with  child, 
And  mothers  sobbing  over  babes 

That  clung  to  them  and  smiled. 
And  sick  men  borne  in  litters  no 

High  on  the  necks  of  slaves, 
And  troops  of  sunburnt  husbandmen 

With  reaping-hooks  and  staves, 

XV. 

And  droves  of  mules  and  asses 

Laden  with  skins  of  wine,  115 

And  endless  flocks  of  goats  and  sheep, 

And  endless  herds  of  kine. 
And  endless  trains  of  wagons, 

That  creaked  beneath  the  weight 
Of  corn-sacks  and  of  household  goods,  120 

Choked  every  roaring  gate. 

XVI. 

Now  from  the  rock  Tarpeian 

Could  the  wan  burghers  spy 
The  line  of  blazing  villages 

Red  in  the  midnight  sky,  125 

The  Fathers  of  the  City 

They  sat  all  night  and  day. 
For  every  hour  some  horseman  came 

With  tidings  of  dismay. 


HOKA  TIUS.  35 


To  eastward  and  to  westward  13° 

Have  spread  the  Tuscan  bands  ; 
Nor  house  nor  fence  nor  dovecote 

In  Crustumerium  stands. 
Verbenna  down  to  Ostia 

Hath  wasted  all  the  plain  ;  135 

Astur  hath  stormed  Janiculum, 

And  the  stout  guards  are  slain. 

XVIII. 

I  wis,  in  all  the  Senate 

There  was  no  heart  so  bold 
But  sore  it  ached  and  fast  it  beat,  140 

When  that  ill  news  was  told. 
Forthwith  uprose  the  Consul, 

Uprose  the  Fathers  all ; 
In  haste  they  girded  up  their  gowns, 

And  hied  them  to  the  wall.  145 

XIX. 

They  held  a  council  standing 

Before  the  River-Gate  ; 
Short  time  was  there,  ye  well  may  guess, 

For  musing  or  debate. 
Out  spake  the  Consul  roundly:  150 

"  The  bridge  must  straight  go  down ; 
For,  since  Janiculum  is  lost, 

Naught  else  can  save  the  town." 

XX. 

Just  then  a  scout  came  flying. 

All  wild  with  haste  and  fear:  155 


36  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

"  To  arms  !  to  arms  !   Sir  Consul ; 

Lars  Porsena  is  here." 
On  the  low  hills  to  westward 

The  Consul  fixed  his  eye, 
And  saw  the  swarthy  storm  of  dust  i6o 

Rise  fast  along  the  sky. 

XXI. 

And  nearer  fast  and  nearer 

Doth  the  red  whirlwind  come ; 
And  louder  still  and  still  more  loud, 
From  underneath  that  rolling  cloud,  165 

Is  heard  the  trumpet's  war-note  proud. 

The  trampling  and  the  hum. 
And  plainly  and  more  plainly 

Now  through  the  gloom  appears, 
Far  to  left  and  far  to  right,  170 

In  broken  gleams  of  dark-blue  light, 
The  long  array  of  helmets  bright, 

The  long  array  of  spears. 

XXII, 

And  plainly  and  more  plainly, 

Above  that  glimmering  line,  175 

Now  might  ye  see  the  banners 

Of  twelve  fair  cities  shine  ; 
But  the  banner  of  proud  Clusium 

Was  highest  of  them  all. 
The  terror  of  the  Umbrian,  180 

The  terror  of  the  Gaul. 

XXIII. 

And  plainly  and  more  plainly 
Now  might  the  burghers  know, 


HORA  TJUS.  37 

By  port  and  vest,  by  horse  and  crest, 

Each  warlike  Lucumo.  185 

There  Cihiius  of  Arretium 

On  his  fleet  roan  was  seen ; 
And  Astur  of  the  fourfold  shield, 
Girt  with  the  brand  none  else  may  wield, 
Tolumnius  with  the  belt  of  gold,  190 

And  dark  Verbenna  from  the  hold 

By  reedy  Thrasymene. 

XXIV. 

Fast  by  the  royal  standard, 

O'erlooking  all  the  war, 
Lars  Porsena  of  Clusium  i95 

Sat  in  his  ivory  car. 
By  the  right  wheel  rode  Mamilius, 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name  ; 
And  by  the  left  false  Sextus, 

That  wrought  the  deed  of  shame.  200 

XXV. 

But  when  the  face  of  Sextus 

Was  seen  among  the  foes, 
A  yell  that  rent  the  firmament 

From  all  the  town  arose. 
On  the  house-tops  was  no  woman  205 

But  spat  towards  him  and  hissed, 
No  child  but  screamed  out  curses 

And  shook  its  little  fist. 


But  the  Consul's  brow  was  sad, 
And  the  Consul's  speech  was  low. 


38  LAVS    OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

And  darkly  looked  he  at  the  wall, 

And  darkly  at  the  foe. 
"  Their  van  will  be  upon  us 

Before  the  bridge  goes  down  ; 
And  if  they  once  may  win  the  bridge,  215. 

What  hope  to  save  the  town?" 

XXVII. 

Then  out  spake  brave  Horatius, 

The  Captain  of  the  Gate  : 
"  To  every  man  upon  this  earth 

Death  cometh  soon  or  late.  220 

And  how  can  man  die  better 

Than  facing  fearful  odds, 
For  the  ashes  of  his  fathers 

And  the  temples  of  his  Gods, 

XXVIII. 

"  And  for  the  tender  mother  225 

Who  dandled  him  to  rest, 
And  for  the  wife  who  nurses 

His  baby  at  her  breast, 
And  for  the  holy  maidens 

Who  feed  the  eternal  flame,  230 

To  save  them  from  false  Sextus 

That  wrought  the  deed  of  shame  .-' 

XXIX. 

"  Hew  down  the  bridge,  Sir  Consul, 

With  all  the  speed  ye  may ; 
I,  with  two  more  to  help  me,  235 

Will  hold  the  foe  in  play. 


HORA  TIUS.  39 

In  yon  strait  path  a  thousand 

May  well  be  stopped  by  three. 
Now  who  will  stand  on  either  hand, 

And  keep  the  bridge  with  me  ? "  240 


Then  out  spake  Spurius  Lartius  — 

A  Ramnian  proud  was  he  : 
"  Lo,  I  will  stand  at  thy  right  hand, 

And  keep  the  bridge  with  thee." 
And  out  spake  strong  Herminius  —  245 

Of  Titian  blood  was  he : 
"  I  will  abide  on  thy  left  side, 

And  keep  the  bridge  with  thee." 

XXXI. 

"  Horatius,"  quoth  the  Consul, 

"  As  thou  sayest,  so  let  it  be."  250 

And  straight  against  that  great  array 

Forth  went  the  dauntless  Three. 
For  Romans  in  Rome's  quarrel 

Spared  neither  land  nor  gold. 
Nor  son  nor  wife,  nor  limb  nor  life,  255 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 

XXXII. 

Then  none  was  for  a  party ; 

Then  all  were  for  the  State.; 
Then  the  great  man  helped  the  poor, 

And  the  poor  man  loved  the  great ;  260 

Then  lands  were  fairly  portioned; 

Then  spoils  were  fairly  sold : 
The  Romans  were  like  brothers 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 


40  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 


Now  Roman  is  to  Roman  265 

More  hateful  than  a  foe  ; 
And  the  Tribunes  beard  the  high, 

And  the  Fathers  grind  the  low. 
As  we  wax  hot  in  faction, 

In  battle  we  wax  cold;  270 

Wherefore  men  fight  not  as  they  fought 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 

XXXIV. 

Now  while  the  Three  were  tightening' 

Their  harness  on  their  backs. 
The  Consul  was  the  foremost  man  275 

To  take  in  hand  an  axe ; 
And  Fathers  mixed  with  Commons 

Seized  hatchet,  bar,  and  crow, 
And  smote  upon  the  planks  above, 

And  loosed  the  props  below.  280 


Meanwhile  the  Tuscan  army, 

Right  glorious  to  behold, 
Came  flashing  back  the  noonday  light. 
Rank  behind  rank,  like  surges  bright 

Of  a  broad  sea  of  gold.  285 

Four  hundred  trumpets  sounded 

A  peal  of  warlike  glee, 
As  that  great  host,  with  measured  tread, 
And  spears  advanced  and  ensigns  spread, 
Rolled  slowly  towards  the  bridge's  head,  290 

Where  stood  the  dauntless  Three. 


HORA  TIUS.  41 


The  Three  stood  calm  and  silent, 

And  looked  upon  the  foes, 
And  a  great  shout  of  laughter 

From  all  the  vanguard  rose  ;  295 

And  forth  three  chiefs  came  spurring 

Before  that  deep  array ; 
To  earth  they  sprang,  their  swords  they  drew, 
And  lifted  high  their  shields,  and  flew 

To  win  the  narrow  way;  3°° 

XXXVII. 

Aunus  from  green  Tifernum, 

Lord  of  the  Hill  of  Vines; 
And  Seius,  whose  eight  hundred  slaves 

Sicken  in  Ilva's  mines  ; 
And  Picus,  long  to  Clusium  30S 

Vassal  in  peace  and  war, 
Who  led  to  fight  his  Umbrian  powers 
From  that  grey  crag  where,  girt  with  towers, 
The  fortress  of  Nequinum  lowers 

O'er  the  pale  waves  of  Nar.  3^0 

XXXVIII. 

Stout  Lartius  hurled  down  Aunus 

Into  the  stream  beneath; 
Herminius  struck  at  Seius, 

And  clove  him  to  the  teeth; 
At  Picus  brave  Horatius  315 

Darted  one  fiery  thrust. 
And  the  proud  Umbrian 's  gilded  arms 

Clashed  in  the  bloody  dust. 


42  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 


XXXIX. 


Then  Ocnus  of  Falerii 

Rushed  on  the  Roman  Three ;  320 

And  Lausulus  of  Urgo, 

The  rover  of  the  sea  ; 
And  Aruns  of  Volsinium, 

Who  slew  the  great  wild  boar, 
The  great  wild  boar  that  had  his  den  325 

Amidst  the  reeds  of  Cosa's  fen, 
And  wasted  fields  and  slaughtered  men 

Along  Albinia's  shore. 

XL. 

Herminius  smote  down  Aruns; 

Lartius  laid  Ocnus  low ;  330 

Right  to  the  heart  of  Lausulus 

Horatius  sent  a  blow. 
"  Lie  there,"  he  cried,  "  fell  pirate  ! 

No  more,  aghast  and  pale. 
From  Ostia's  walls  the  crowd  shall  mark  335 

The  track  of  thy  destroying  bark. 
No  more  Campania's  hinds  shall  fly 
To  woods  and  caverns,  when  they  spy 

Thy  thrice  accursed  sail." 


But  now  no  sound  of  laughter  340 

Was  heard  among  the  foes ; 
A  wild  and  wrathful  clamor 

From  all  the  vanguard  rose. 
Six  spears'  length  from  the  entrance 

Halted  that  deep  array,  345 


HORA  TIUS.  43 

And  for  a  space  no  man  came  forth 
To  win  the  narrow  way. 

XLII. 

But  hark  !  the  cry  is  "  Astur !  " 

And  lo  !  the  ranks  divide, 
And  the  great  Lord  of  Luna  350 

Comes  with  liis  stately  stride. 
Upon  his  ample  shoulders 

Clangs  loud  the  fourfold  shield, 
And  in  his  hand  he  shakes  the  brand 

Which  none  but  he  can  wield.  355 

XLIII. 

He  smiled  on  those  bold  Romans 

A  smile  serene  and  high  ; 
He  eyed  the  flinching  Tuscans, 

And  scorn  was  in  his  eye. 
Quoth  he,  "  The  she-wolf's  litter  360 

Stand  savagely  at  bay  ; 
But  will  ye  dare  to  follow. 

If  Astur  clears  the  way?  " 

XLIV. 

Then,  whirling  up  his  broadsword 

With  both  hands  to  the  height,  365 

He  rushed  against  Horatius, 

And  smote  with  all  his  might. 
With  shield  and  blade  Horatius 

Right  deftly  turned  the  blow. 
The  blow,  though  turned,  came  yet  too  nigh ;  370 

It  missed  his  helm,  but  gashed  his  thigh; 
The  Tuscans  raised  a  joyful  cry 

To  see  the  red  blood  flow. 


44  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

XLV. 

He  reeled,  and  on  Herminius 

He  leaned  one  breathing-space;  375 

Then,  like  a  wildcat  mad  with  wounds. 

Sprang  right  at  Astur's  face  ; 
Through  teeth  and  skull  and  helmet 

So  fierce  a  thrust  he  sped, 
The  good  sword  stood  a  hand-breadth  out  380 

Behind  the  Tuscan's  head. 

XLVI. 

And  the  great  Lord  of  Luna 

Fell  at  that  deadly  stroke, 
As  falls  on  Mount  Alvernus 

A  thunder-smitten  oak.  385 

Far  o'er  the  crashing  forest 

The  giant  arms  lie  spread ; 
And  the  pale  augurs,  muttering  low, 

Gaze  on  the  blasted  head. 

XLVII. 

On  Astur's  throat  Horatius  390 

Right  firmly  pressed  his  heel. 
And  thrice  and  four  times  tugged  amain, 

Ere  he  wrenched  out  the  steel. 
"And  see,"  he  cried,  "the  welcome, 

Fair  guests,  that  waits  you  here  !  395 

What  noble  Lucumo  comes  next 

To  taste  our  Roman  cheer?  " 

XLVIII. 

But  at  his  haughty  challenge 
A  sullen  murmur  ran, 


HORA  TIUS.  45 

Mingled  of  wrath  and  shame  and  dread,  400 

Along  that  glittering  van. 
There  lacked  not  men  of  prowess 

Nor  men  of  lordly  race  ; 
For  all  Etruria's  noblest 

Were  round  the  fatal  place.  405 

XLIX. 

But  all  Etruria's  noblest 

Felt  their  hearts  sink  to  see 
On  the  earth  the  bloody  corpses, 

In  the  path  the  dauntless  Three  ; 
And  from  the  ghastly  entrance  410 

Where  those  bold  Romans  stood 
All  shrank,  like  boys  who,  unaware, 
Ranging  the  woods  to  start  a  hare. 
Come  to  the  mouth  of  the  dark  lair 
Where,  growling  low,  a  fierce  old  bear  415 

Lies  amidst  bones  and  blood. 

L. 

Was  none  who  would  be  foremost 

To  lead  such  dire  attack ; 
But  those  behind  cried  "  Forward  !  " 

And  those  before  cried  "  Back  !  "  4-0 

And  backward  now  and  forward 

Wavers  the  deep  array; 
And  on  the  tossing  sea  of  steel 

To  and  fro  the  standards  reel. 
And  the  victorious  trumpet-peal  425 

Dies  fitfully  away. 

LI. 

Yet  one  man  for  one  moment 
Stood  out  before  the  crowd ; 


46  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Well  known  was  he  to  all  the  Three, 

And  they  gave  him  greeting  loud :  430 

"  Now  welcome,  welcome,  Sextus  ! 
Now  welcome  to  thy  home  ! 

Why  dost  thou  stay  and  turn  away  ? 
Here  lies  the  road  to  Rome." 

Lll, 

Thrice  looked  he  at  the  city,  435 

Thrice  looked  he  at  the  dead  ; 
And  thrice  came  on  in  fury. 

And  thrice  turned  back  in  dread; 
And,  white  with  fear  and  hatred, 

Scowled  at  the  narrow  way,  440 

Where,  wallowing  in  a  pool  of  blood. 

The  bravest  Tuscans  lay. 

LIII. 

But  meanwhile  axe  and  lever 

Have  manfully  been  plied. 
And  now  the  bridge  hangs  tottering  445 

Above  the  boiling  tide. 
"  Come  back,  come  back,  Horatius  !  " 

Loud  cried  the  Fathers  all. 
"  Back,  Lartius  !  back,  Herminius  ! 

Back,  ere  the  ruin  fall !  "  45° 

LIV. 

Back  darted  Spurius  Lartius, 

Herminius  darted  back; 
And,  as  they  passed,  beneath  their  feet 

They  felt  the  timbers  crack. 
But  when  they  turned  their  faces,  455 

And  on  the  farther  shore 


MORA  TIUS.  47 

Saw  brave  Horatius  stand  alone, 

They  would  have  crossed  once  more. 

LV. 

But  with  a  crash  like  thunder 

Fell  every  loosened  beam,  460 

And,  like  a  dam,  the  mighty  wreck 

Lay  right  athwart  the  stream. 
And  a  long  shout  of  triumph 

Rose  from  the  walls  of  Rome, 
As  to  the  highest  turret-tops  465 

Was  splashed  the  yellow  foam. 

LVI. 

And,  like  a  horse  unbroken 

When  first  he  feels  the  rein, 
The  furious  river  struggled  hard. 

And  tossed  his  tawny  mane,  470 

And  burst  the  curb  and  bounded. 

Rejoicing  to  be  free, 
And,  whirling  down  in  fierce  career 
Battlement  and  plank  and  pier, 

Rushed  headlong  to  the  sea.  475 

LVI  I. 

Alone  stood  brave  Horatius, 

But  constant  still  in  mind. 
Thrice  thirty  thousand  foes  before 

And  the  broad  flood  behind. 
"  Down  with  him !  "  cried  false  Sextus,  480 

With  a  smile  on  his  pale  face. 
"  Now  yield  thee,"  cried  Lars  Porsena, 

"  Now  yield  thee  to  our  grace." 


48  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 


Round  turned  he,  as  not  deigning 

Those  craven  ranks  to  see;  485 

Naught  spake  he  to  Lars  Porsena, 

To  Sextus  naught  spake  he  ; 
But  he  saw  on  Palatinus 

The  white  porch  of  his  home, 
And  he  spake  to  the  noble  river  490 

That  rolls  by  the  towers  of  Rome  : 

LIX, 

"  O  Tiber !  father  Tiber ! 

To  whom  the  Romans  pray, 
A  Roman's  life,  a  Roman's  arms, 

Take  thou  in  charge  this  day !  "  495 

So  he  spake,  and  speaking  sheathed 

The  good  sword  by  his  side. 
And  with  his  harness  on  his  back 

Plunged  headlong  in  the  tide. 


LX. 

No  sound  of  joy  or  sorrow  500 

Was  heard  from  either  bank, 
But  friends  and  foes  in  dumb  surprise, 
With  parted  lips  and  straining  eyes, 

Stood  gazing  where  he  sank ; 
And  when  above  the  surges  505 

They  saw  his  crest  appear. 
All  Rome  sent  forth  a  rapturous  cry, 
And  even  the  ranks  of  Tuscany 

Could  scarce  forbear  to  cheer. 


HORA  TIUS.  49 


But  fiercely  ran  the  current,  510 

Swollen  high  by  months  of  rain ; 
And  fast  his  blood  was  flowing, 

And  he  was  sore  in  pain, 
And  heavy  with  his  armor, 

And  spent  with  changing  blows;  515 

And  oft  they  thought  him  sinking. 

But  still  again  he  rose. 


Never,  I  ween,  did  swimmer. 

In  such  an  evil  case, 
Struggle  through  such  a  raging  flood  *         520 

Safe  to  the  landing  place; 
But  his  limbs  were  borne  up  bravely 

By  the  brave  heart  within, 
And  our  good  father  Tiber 

Bare  bravely  up  his  chin.  525 

LXIII. 

"  Curse  on  him  !  "  quoth  false  Sextus ; 

"  Will  not  the  villain  drown  ? 
But  for  this  stay,  ere  close  of  day 

We  should  have  sacked  the  town  !  " 
"  Heaven  help  him  !  "  quoth  Lars  Porsena,         530 

"  And  bring  him  safe  to  shore  ; 
For  such  a  gallant  feat  of  arms 

Was  never  seen  before." 

LXIV. 

And  now  he  feels  the  bottom ; 

Now  on  dry  earth  he  stands ;  535 


50  LAVS    OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Now  round  him  throng  the  Fathers 

To  press  his  gory  hands ; 
And  now,  with  shouts  and  clapping 

And  noise  of  weeping  loud, 
He  enters  through  the  River-Gate,  540 

Borne  by  the  joyous  crowd. 


They  gave  him  of  the  corn-land, 

That  was  of  public  right. 
As  much  as  two  strong  oxen 

Could  plough  from  morn  till  night ;  545 

And  they  made  a  molten  image 

And  set  it  up  on  high, 
And  there  it  stands  unto  this  day 

To  witness  if  I  lie. 


It  stands  in  the  Comitium,  550 

Plain  for  all  folk  to  see, 
Horatius  in  his  harness 

Halting  upon  one  knee  ; 
And  underneath  is  written 

In  letters  all  of  gold  555 

How  valiantly  he  kept  the  bridge 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 

LXVII. 

And  still  his  name  sounds  stirring 

Unto  the  men  of  Rome, 
As  the  trumpet-blast  that  cries  to  them  560 

To  charge  the  Volscian  home  ; 
And  wives  still  pray  to  Juno 


HORA  TIL'S.  51 

For  boys  with  hearts  as  bold 
As  his  who  kept  the  bridge  so  well 

In  the  brave  days  of  old.  565 

LXVIII. 

And  in  the  nights  of  winter, 

When  the  cold  north  winds  blow, 
And  the  long  howling  of  the  wolves 

Is  heard  amidst  the  snow ; 
When  round  the  lonely  cottage  570 

Roars  loud  the  tempest's  din, 
And  the  good  logs  of  Algidus 

Roar  louder  yet  within ; 

LXIX. 

When  the  oldest  cask  is  opened, 

And  the  largest  lamp  is  lit;  575 

When  the  chestnuts  glow  in  the  embers, 

And  the  kid  turns  on  the  spit ; 
When  young  and  old  in  circle 

Around  the  firebrands  close  ; 
When  the  girls  are  weaving  baskets,  580 

And  the  lads  are  shaping  bows ; 

LXX. 

When  the  goodman  mends  his  armor, 

And  trims  his  helmet's  plume ; 
When  the  goodwife's  shuttle  merrily 

Goes  flashing  through  the  loom  ;  585 

With  weeping  and  with  laughter 

Still  is  the  story  told, 
How  well  Horatius  kept  the  bridge 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 


THE 

BATTLE    OF   THE    LAKE    REGILLUS. 


The  following  poem  is  supposed  to  have  been  pro- 
duced about  ninety  years  after  the  lay  of  Horatius.  Some 
persons  mentioned  in  the  lay  of  Horatius  make  their  ap- 
pearance again,  and  some  appellations  and  epithets  used 
in  the  lay  of  Horatius  have  been  purposely  repeated ;  for,  5 
in  an  age  of  ballad  poetry,  it  scarcely  ever  fails  to  happen 
that  certain  phrases  come  to  be  appropriated  to  certain 
men  and  things,  and  are  regularly  applied  to  those  men 
and  things  by  every  minstrel.  Thus  we  find,  both  in  the 
Homeric  poems  and  in  Hesiod,  /3ti;  'HpaKXrjiirj,  TrepixAuTos  10 
'AixcfiLyvrjw;,  Sioikto/dos  'Apy(.L(f>6vTr}^,  eTrrarvAos  ®-qP-q,  EAcvi^s 
htK  rjiJKOfxoio.  Thus,  too,  in  our  own  national  songs  Doug- 
las is  almost  always  the  doughty  Douglas,  England  is  merry 
England,  all  the  gold  is  red,  and  all  the  ladies  are  gay. 

The  principal  distinction  between  the  lay  of  Horatius  15 
and  the  lay  of  the  Lake  Regillus  is  that  the  former  is 
meant    to    be    purely   Roman,   while    the    latter,   though 
national    in    its   general   spirit,  has  a  slight   tincture  of 
Greek  learning  and  of  Greek  superstition.     The  story  of 
the  Tarquins,  as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  appears  to  have  20 
been  compiled  from  the  works  of  several  popular  poets ; 
and  one,  at  least,  of  those  poets  appears  to  have  visited 
the  Greek  colonies  in  Italy,  if  not  Greece  itself,  and  to 
have  had  some  acquaintance  with  the  works  of  Homer 
and  Herodotus.     Many  of  the  most  striking  adventures  25 
of    the   house   of    Tarquin,   before   Lucretia  makes   her 
appearance,  have  a  Greek  character.    The  Tarquins  them- 

53 


54  LA  VS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

selves  are  represented  as  Corinthian  nobles  of  the  great 
house  of  the  Bacchiada;,  driven  from  their  country  by  the 
tyranny  of  that  Cypselus  the  tale  of  whose  strange  escape 
Herodotus  has  related  with  incomparable  simplicity  and 

5  liveliness.^  Livy  and  Dionysius  tell  us  that,  when  Tarquin 
the  Proud  was  asked  what  was  the  best  mode  of  govern- 
ing a  conquered  city,  he  replied  only  by  beating  down 
with  his  staff  all  the  tallest  poppies  in  his  garden.^  This 
is  exactly  what  Herodotus,  in  the  passage  to  which  refer- 

lo  ence  has  already  been  made,  relates  of  the  counsel  given 
to  Periander,  the  son  of  Cypselus.  The  stratagem  by 
which  the  town  of  Gabii  is  brought  under  the  power  of 
the  Tarquins  is,  again,  obviously  copied  from  Herodotus.^ 
The  embassy  of  the  young  Tarquins  to  the  oracle  at  Del- 

15  phi  is  just  such  a  story  as  would  be  told  by  a  poet  whose 
head  was  full  of  the  Greek  mythology  ;  and  the  ambigu- 
ous answer  returned  by  Apollo  is  in  the  exact  style  of 
the  prophecies  which,  according  to  Herodotus,  lured 
Crcesus  to  destruction.     Then  the  character  of  the  nar- 

20  rative  changes.  From  the  first  mention  of  Lucretia  to 
the  retreat  of  Porsena  nothing  seems  to  be  borrowed  from 
foreign  sources.  The  villainy  of  Sextus,  the  suicide  of 
his  victim,  the  revolution,  the  death  of  the  sons  of  Brutus, 
the  defence   of  the  bridge.   Mucins   burning  his   hand,* 

25  Cloelia  swimming  through  Tiber,  seem  to  be  all  strictly 
Roman.  But  when  we  have  done  with  the  Tuscan  war, 
and  enter  upon  the  war  with  the  Latines,  we  are  again 
struck  by  the  Greek  air  of  the  story.     The  Battle  of  the 

1  Herodotus,  v.  92.     Livy,  i.  34.      Dionysius,  iii.  46. 

2  Livy,  i.  54.     Dionysius,  iv.  56. 

3  Herodotus,  iii.  154.     Livy,  i.  53. 

*  M.  de  Pouilly  attempted,  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  to 
prove  that  the  story  of  Mucins  was  of  Greek  origin  ;  but  he  was 
signally  confuted  by  the  Abbe  Sallier.  See  the  Aletnoires  de  PAca- 
deniie  des  Insc?'iptwns,  vi.  27.  66. 


THE   BATTLE    OF    THE  LAKE   REGILLUS.  55 

Lake  Regillus  is  in  all  respects  a  Homeric  battle,  except 
that  the  combatants  ride  astride  on  their  horses  instead 
of  driving  chariots.  The  mass  of  fighting  men  is  hardly 
mentioned.  The  leaders  single  each  other  out,  and  en- 
gage hand  to  hand.  The  great  object  of  the  warriors  on  5 
both  sides  is,  as  in  the  Iliad,  to  obtain  possession  of  the 
spoils  and  bodies  of  the  slain  ;  and  several  circumstances 
are  related  which  forcibly  remind  us  of  the  great  slaughter 
round  the  corpses  of  Sarpedon  and  Patroclus. 

But  there  is  one  circumstance  which  deserves  especial  lo 
notice.  Both  the  war  of  Troy  and  the  war  of  Regillus 
were  caused  by  the  licentious  passions  of  young  princes, 
who  were  therefore  peculiarly  bound  not  to  be  sparing  of 
their  own  persons  in  the  day  of  battle.  Now  the  conduct 
of  Sextus  at  Regillus,  as  described  by  Livy,  so  exactly  15 
resembles  that  of  Paris,  as  described  at  the  beginning  of 
the  third  book  of  the  Iliad,  that  it  is  difficult  to  believe  the 
resemblance  accidental.  Paris  appears  before  the  Trojan 
ranks,  defying  the  bravest  Greek  to  encounter  him : 

T/3W(rtv  /A€v  •Kpo[Ka.\it,f.v  ' AXe$avSpo<;  OcoeiBrjs,  20 

.    .    .     ApycLijJV  TrpoKaXi^CTO  iravTas  d/3to"TOv;s, 
avTijitov  p.a-^i(ja(jdaL  iv  alvrj  Srj'ioTrJTL. 

Livy  introduces  Sextus  in  a  similar  manner:  "  Ferocem 
juvenem  Tarquinium,  ostentantem  se  in  prima  exsulum 
acie."    Menelaus  rushes  to  meet  Paris.     A  Roman  noble,  25 
eager  for  vengeance,   spurs   his  horse  towards   Sextus. 
Both  the  guilty  princes  are  instantly  terror  stricken: 
Tov  S    cos  ow  ivorjcrcv   A\e^av8po<;  ^eoetS^S 
iv  Trpop.6.^0L<Ti  <j>av€VTa,  KaTCirXy^yrj  (f>L\ov  rjTop' 
atj/  8'  CTapwv  £ts  Wvo<i  cp(a^eTO  K^p'  dAeetVojj/.  30 

"  Tarquinius,"  says  Livy,  "  retro  in  agmen  suorum 
infenso  cessit  hosti."  If  this  be  a  fortuitous  coinci- 
dence, it  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  in  literature. 


56  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

In  the  following  poem,  therefore,  images  and  inci- 
dents have  been  borrowed,  not  merely  without  scruple, 
but  on  principle,  from  the  incomparable  battle-pieces  of 
Homer. 
5  The  popular  belief  at  Rome,  from  an  early  period, 
seems  to  have  been  that  the  event  of  the  great  day  of 
Regillus  was  decided  by  supernatural  agency.  Castor 
and  Pollux,  it  was  said,  had  fought,  armed  and  mounted, 
at  the  head  of  the  legions  of  the  commonwealth,  and  had 

10  afterwards  carried  the  news  of  the  victory  with  incred- 
ible speed  to  the  city.  The  well  in  the  Forum  at  which 
they  had  alighted  was  pointed  out.  Near  the  well  rose 
their  ancient  temple.  A  great  festival  was  kept  to  their 
honor  on  the  Ides  of  Quintilis,  supposed  to  be  the  anni- 

15  versary  of  the  battle  ;  and  on  that  day  sumptuous  sacri- 
fices were  offered  to  them  at  the  public  charge.  One 
spot  on  the  margin  of  Lake  Regillus  was  regarded  during 
many  ages  with  superstitious  awe.  A  mark,  resembling 
in  shape  a  horse's  hoof,  was  discernible  in  the  volcanic 

20  rock  ;  and  this  mark  was  believed  to  have  been  made  by 
one  of  the  celestial  chargers. 

How  the  legend  originated  cannot  now  be  ascertained, 
but  we  may  easily  imagine  several  ways  in  which  it  might 
have  originated ;   nor  is  it  at  all  necessary  to  suppose, 

25  with  Julius  Frontinus,  that  two  young  men  were  dressed 
up  by  the  Dictator  to  personate  the  sons  of  Leda.  It  is 
probable  that  Livy  is  correct  when  he  says  that  the 
Roman  general,  in  the  hour  of  peril,  vowed  a  temple  to 
Castor.     If  so,  nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that 

30  the  multitude  should  ascribe  the  victory  to  the  favor  of 
the  Twin  Gods.  When  such  was  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment, any  man  who  chose  to  declare  that,  in  the  midst  of 
the  confusion  and  slaughter,  he  had  seen  two  godlike 
forms  on  white  horses  scattering  the  Latines  would  find 


THE   BATTLE    OF   THE   LAKE   REGLLLUS.  57 

ready  credence.  We  know,  indeed,  that  in  modern  times 
a  very  similar  story  actually  found  credence  among  a 
people  much  more  civilized  than  the  Romans  of  the  fifth 
century  before  Christ.  A  chaplain  of  Cortes,  writing 
about  thirty  years  after  the  conquest  of  Mexico,  in  an  5 
age  of  printing  presses,  libraries,  universities,  scholars, 
logicians,  jurists,  and  statesmen,  had  the  face  to  assert 
that,  in  one  engagement  against  the  Indians,  Saint  James 
had  appeared  on  a  gray  horse  at  the  head  of  the  Castilian 
adventurers.  Many  of  those  adventurers  were  living  when  lo 
this  lie  was  printed.  One  of  them,  honest  Bernal  Diaz, 
wrote  an  account  of  the  expedition.  He  had  the  evi- 
dence of  his  own  senses  against  the  legend;  but  he  seems 
to  have  distrusted  even  the  evidence  of  his  own  senses. 
He  says  that  he  was  in  the  battle,  and  that  he  saw  a  gray  15 
horse  with  a  man  on  his  back,  but  that  the  man  was,  to 
his  thinking,  Francesco  de  Morla,  and  not  the  ever- 
blessed  apostle  Saint  James.  "  Nevertheless,"  Bernal 
adds,  "  it  may  be  that  the  person  on  the  gray  horse  was 
the  glorious  apostle  Saint  James,  and  that  I,  sinner  that  I  20 
am,  was  unworthy  to  see  him."  The  Romans  of  the  age 
of  Cincinnatus  were  probably  quite  as  credulous  as  the 
Spanish  subjects  of  Charles  the  Fifth.  It  is  therefore  con- 
ceivable that  the  appearance  of  Castor  and  Pollux  may 
have  become  an  article  of  faith  before  the  generation  25 
which  had  fought  at  Regillus  had  passed  away.  Nor 
could  anything  be  more  natural  than  that  the  poets  of 
the  next  age  should  embellish  this  story,  and  make  the 
celestial  horsemen  bear  the  tidings  of  victory  to  Rome. 

Many  years  after  the  temple  of  the  Twin  Gods  had  30 
been  built  in  the  Forum,  an  important  addition  was  made 
to  the  ceremonial  by  which  the  state  annually  testified  its 
gratitude  for  their  protection.     Quintus  Fabius  and  Pub- 
lius  Decius  were  elected  Censors  at  a  momentous  crisis. 


58  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

It  had  become  absolutely  necessary  that  the  classification 
of  the  citizens  should  be  revised.  On  that  classification 
depended  the  distribution  of  political  power.  Party-spirit 
ran  high  ;  and  the  republic  seemed  to  be  in  danger  of 
5  falling  under  the  dominion  either  of  a  narrow  oligarchy 
or  of  an  ignorant  and  headstrong  rabble.  Under  such 
circumstances,  the  most  illustrious  patrician  and  the  most 
illustrious  plebeian  of  the  age  were  entrusted  with  the 
office  of    arbitrating    between    the    angry  factions ;    and 

'o  they  performed  their  arduous  task  to  the  satisfaction  of 
all  honest  and  reasonable  men. 

One  of  their  reforms  was  a  remodelling  of  the  equestrian 
order  ;  and,  having  effected  this  reform,  they  determined 
to  give  to  their  work  a  sanction  derived  from  religion.     In 

'5  the  chivalrous  societies  of  modern  times,  societies  which 
have  much  more  than  may  at  first  sight  appear  in  common 
with  the  equestrian  order  of  Rome,  it  has  been  usual  to 
invoke  the  special  protection  of  some  Saint,  and  to  ob- 
serve his  day  with  peculiar  solemnity.     Thus  the  Com- 

2o  panions  of  the  Garter  wear  the  image  of  Saint  George 
depending  from  their  collars,  and  meet  on  great  occasions 
in  Saint  George's  Chapel.  Thus,  when  Lewis  the  Four- 
teenth instituted  a  new  order  of  chivalry  for  the  reward- 
ing of  military  merit,  he  commended  it  to  the  favor  of  his 

25  own  glorified  ancestor  and  patron,  and  decreed  that  all 
the  members  of  the  fraternity  should  meet  at  the  royal 
palace  on  the  feast  of  Saint  Lewis,  should  attend  the  king 
to  chapel,  should  hear  mass,  and  should  subsequently  hold 
their  great  annual  assembly.     There  is  a  considerable  re- 

30  semblance  between  this  rule  of  the  order  of  Saint  Lewis 
and  the  rule  which  Fabius  and  Decius  made  respecting 
the  Roman  Knights.  It  was  ordained  that  a  grand  mus- 
ter and  inspection  of  the  equestrian  body  should  be  part 
of  the  ceremonial  performed,  on  the  anniversary  of  the 


THE   BATTLE    OF    THE   LAKE   REGILLUS.  59 

battle  of  Regillus,  in  honor  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  the 
two  equestrian  Gods.  All  the  Knights,  clad  in  purple 
and  crowned  with  olive,  were  to  meet  at  a  temple  of  Mars 
in  the  suburbs.  Thence  they  were  to  ride  in  state  to  the 
Forum,  where  the  temple  of  the  Twins  stood.  This  pag-  5 
eant  was,  during  several  centuries,  considered  as  one  of 
the  most  splendid  sights  of  Rome.  In  the  time  of  Dio- 
nysius  the  cavalcade  sometimes  consisted  of  five  thousand 
horsemen,  all  persons  of  fair  repute  and  easy  fortune.^ 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Censors  who  instituted  'o 
this  august  ceremony  acted  in  concert  with  the  Pontiffs, 
to  whom,  by  the  constitution  of  Rome,  the  superintend- 
ence of  the  public  worship  belonged ;  and  it  is  probable 
that  those  high  religious  functionaries  were,  as  usual,  for- 
tunate enough  to  find  in  their  books  or  traditions  some  15 
warrant  for  the  innovation. 

The  following  poem  is  supposed  to  have  been  made  for 
this  great  occasion.  Songs,  we  know,  were  chanted  at 
the  religious  festivals  of  Rome  from  an  early  period,  — 
indeed  from  so  early  a  period  that  some  of  the  sacred  20 
verses  were  popularly  ascribed  to  Numa,  and  were  utterly 
unintelligible  in  the  age  of  Augustus.  In  the  Second 
Punic  War  a  great  feast  was  held  in  honor  of  Juno,  and 
a  song  was  sung  in  her  praise.  This  song  was  extant 
when  Livy  wrote ;  and,  though  exceedingly  rugged  and  25 
uncouth,  seemed  to  him  not  wholly  destitute  of  merit.^ 
A  song,  as  we  learn  from  Horace,^  was  part  of  the  estab- 
lished ritual  at  the  great  Secular  Jubilee.  It  is  therefore 
likely  that    the   Censors    and    Pontiffs,    when   they   had 

1  See  Livy,  ix.  46.  Val.  Max.  ii.  2.  Aurel.  Vict.  De  Viris 
Illiistribus,  32.  Dionysiu.s,  vi.  13.  Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  xv.  5.  See 
also  the  singularly  ingenious  chapter  in  Niebuhr's  posthumous  vol- 
ume, Die  Censiir  des  Q.  Eabius  und  P.  Decius. 

2  Livy,  xxvii.  37.  8  jjor.  Carmen  Saeculare. 


60  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

resolved  to  add  a  grand  procession  of  Knights  to  the 
other  solemnities  annually  performed  on  the  Ides  of  Quin- 
tilis,  would  call  in  the  aid  of  a  poet.  Such  a  poet  would 
naturally  take  for  his  subject  the  battle  of  Regillus,  the 
5  appearance  of  the  Twin  Gods,  and  the  institution  of  their 
festival.  He  would  find  abundant  materials  in  the  bal- 
lads of  his  predecessors  ;  and  he  would  make  free  use  of 
the  scanty  stock  of  Greek  learning  which  he  had  himself 
acquired.     He  would  probably  introduce  some  wise  and 

10  holy  Pontiff  enjoining  the  magnificent  ceremonial,  which 
after  a  long  interval  had  at  length  been  adopted.  If  the 
poem  succeeded,  many  persons  would  commit  it  to  mem- 
ory. Parts  of  it  would  be  sung  to  the  pipe  at  banquets. 
It  would  be  peculiarly  interesting  to  the  great  Posthumian 

15  House,  which  numbered  among  its  many  images  that  of 
the  Dictator  Aulus,  the  hero  of  Regillus.  The  orator 
who,  in  the  following  generation,  pronounced  the  funeral 
panegyric  over  the  remains  of  Lucius  Posthumius  Megel- 
lus,  thrice  Consul,  would  borrow  largely  from  the  lay; 

20  and  thus  some  passages,  much  disfigured,  would  probably 
find  their  way  into  the  chronicles  which  were  afterwards 
in  the  hands  of  Dionysius  and  Livy. 

Antiquaries  differ  widely  as  to  the  situation  of  the  field 
of  battle.     The  opinion  of  those  who  suppose  that  the 

25  armies  met  near  Cornufelle,  between  Frascati  and  the 
Monte  Porzio,  is  at  least  plausible,  and  has  been  fol- 
lowed in  the  poem. 

As  to  the  details  of  the  battle,  it  has  not  been  thought 
desirable  to  adhere  minutely  to  the  accounts  which  have 

30  come  down  to  us.     Those  accounts,  indeed,  differ  widely 

from  each  other,  and  in  all  probability  differ  as  widely  from 

the  ancient  poem  from  which  they  were  originally  derived. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  the  obvious  imitations 

of  the  Iliad,  which  have  been  purposely  introduced. 


THE   BATTLE    OF   THE   LAKE  REGILLUS.  61 


THE   BATTLE  OF  THE   LAKE  REGILLUS. 

A  LAY  SUNG  AT  THE  FEAST  OF  CASTOR  AND  POLLUX,  ON 
THE  IDES  OF  QUINTILIS,  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  THE  CITY 
CCCCLI. 

I. 

Ho,  trumpets,  sound  a  war-note ! 

Ho,  lictors,  clear  the  way ! 
The  Knights  will  ride  in  all  their  pride 

Along  the  streets  to-day. 
To-day  the  doors  and  windows  5 

Are  hung  with  garlands  all. 
From  Castor  in  the  Forum 

To  Mars  without  the  wall. 
Each  Knight  is  robed  in  purple, 

With  olive  each  is  crowned  ;  lo 

A  gallant  war-horse  under  each 

Paws  haughtily  the  ground. 
While  flows  the  Yellow  River, 

While  stands  the  Sacred  Hill, 
The  proud  Ides  of  Quintilis  15 

Shall  have  such  honor  still. 
Gay  are  the  Martian  Kalends, 

December's  Nones  are  gay ; 
But  the  proud  Ides,  when  the  squadron  rides. 

Shall  be  Rome's  whitest  day.  20 


Unto  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 
We  keep  this  solemn  feast. 

Swift,  swift,  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 
Came  spurring  from  the  east. 


62  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

They  came  o'er  wild  Parthenius  25 

Tossing  in  waves  of  pine, 
O'er  Cirrha's  dome,  o'er  Adria's  foam, 

O'er  purple  Apennine ; 
From  where  with  flutes  and  dances 

Their  ancient  mansion  rings  30 

In  lordly  Lacedaemon, 

The  city  of  two  kings, 
To  where,  by  Lake  Regillus, 

Under  the  Porcian  height, 
All  in  the  lands  of  Tusculum,  35 

Was  fought  the  glorious  fight. 

III. 

Now  on  the  place  of  slaughter 

Are  cots  and  sheepfolds  seen, 
And  rows  of  vines  and  fields  of  wheat 

And  apple-orchards  green  ;  40 

The  swine  crush  the  big  acorns 

That  fall  from  Corne's  oaks ; 
Upon  the  turf  by  the  Fair  Fount 

The  reaper's  pottage  smokes. 
The  fisher  baits  his  angle,  45 

The  hunter  twangs  his  bow; 
Little  they  think  on  those  strong  limbs 

That  moulder  deep  below. 
Little  they  think  how  sternly 

That  day  the  trumpets  pealed ;  50 

How  in  the  slippery  swamp  of  blood 

Warrior  and  war-horse  reeled; 
How  wolves  came  with  fierce  gallop. 

And  crows  on  eager  wings. 
To  tear  the  flesh  of  captains,  55 

And  peck  the  eyes  of  kings  ; 


THE   BATTLE    OF   THE  LAKE   REGILLUS.  63 

How  thick  the  dead  lay  scattered 

Under  the  Porcian  height ; 
How  through  the  gates  of  Tusculum 

Raved  the  wild  stream  of  flight ;  60 

And  how  the  Lake  Regillus 

Bubbled  with  crimson  foam, 
What  time  the  Thirty  Cities 

Came  forth  to  war  with  Rome. 

IV. 

But,  Roman,  when  thou  standest  65 

Upon  that  holy  ground, 
Look  thou  with  heed  on  the  dark  rock 

That  girds  the  dark  lake  round; 
So  shalt  thou  see  a  hoof-mark 

Stamped  deep  into  the  flint ;  7° 

It  was  no  hoof  of  mortal  steed 

That  made  so  strange  a  dint. 
There  to  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Vow  thou  thy  vows,  and  pray 
That  they,  in  tempest  and  in  fight,  75 

Will  keep  thy  head  alway. 


Since  last  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Of  mortal  eyes  were  seen, 
Have  years  gone  by  an  hundred 

And  fourscore  and  thirteen.  80 

That  summer  a  Virginius 

Was  Consul  first  in  place ; 
The  second  was  stout  Aulus, 

Of  the  Posthumian  race. 
The  Herald  of  the  Latines  S5 

From  Gabii  came  in  state ; 


64  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

The  Herald  of  the  Latines 

Passed  through  Rome's  Eastern  Gate  ; 

The  Herald  of  the  Latines 

Did  in  our  Forum  stand,  9° 

And  there  he  did  his  office, 
A  sceptre  in  his  hand : 

VI. 

"  Hear,  Senators  and  people 

Of  the  good  town  of  Rome, 
The  Thirty  Cities  charge  you  95 

To  bring  the  Tarquins  home ; 
And  if  ye  still  be  stubborn 

To  work  the  Tarquins  wrong. 
The  Thirty  Cities  warn  you, 

Look  that  your  walls  be  strong."  loo 

VII. 

Then  spake  the  Consul  Aulus  — 

He  spake  a  bitter  jest  — 
"Once  the  jays  sent  a  message 

Unto  the  eagle's  nest : 
'  Now  yield  thou  up  thine  eyrie  105 

Unto  the  carrion-kite, 
Or  come  forth  valiantly  and  face 

The  jays  in  deadly  fight.' 
Forth  looked  in  wrath  the  eagle ; 

And  carrion-kite  and  jay,  no 

Soon  as  they  saw  his  beak  and  claw, 

Fled  screaming  far  away." 

VIII. 

The  Herald  of  the  Latines 
Hath  hied  him  back  in  state ; 


THE  BATTLE   OF   THE   LAKE   REGILLUS.  65 

The  Fathers  of  the  City  115 

Are  met  in  high  debate. 
Then  spake  the  elder  Consul, 

An  ancient  man  and  wise  : 
"  Now  hearken,  Conscript  Fathers, 

To  that  which  I  advise.  120 

In  seasons  of  great  peril 

'Tis  good  that  one  bear  sway  ; 
Then  choose  we  a  Dictator, 

Whom  all  men  shall  obey. 
Camerium  knows  how  deeply  125 

The  sword  of  Aulus  bites, 
And  all  our  city  calls  him 

The  man  of  seventy  fights. 
Then  let  him  be  Dictator 

For  six  months  and  no  more,  13° 

And  have  a  Master  of  the  Knights, 

And  axes  twenty-four." 

IX. 

So  Aulus  was  Dictator, 

The  man  of  seventy  fights ; 
He  made  ^butius  Elva  135 

His  Master  of  the  Knights. 
On  the  third  morn  thereafter. 

At  dawning  of  the  day, 
Did  Aulus  and  ^butius 

Set  forth  with  their  array.  140 

Sempronius  Atratinus 

Was  left  in  charge  at  home 
With  boys  and  with  gray-headed  men 

To  keep  the  walls  of  Rome. 
Hard  by  the  Lake  Regillus  145 

Our  camp  was  pitched  at  night ; 


66  LAVS  OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Eastward  a  mile  the  Latines  lay,  * 

Under  the  Porcian  height. 
Far  over  hill  and  valley 

Their  mighty  host  was  spread,  150 

And  with  their  thousand  watch-fires 

The  midnight  sky  was  red. 


Up  rose  the  golden  morning 

Over  the  Porcian  height, 
The  proud  Ides  of  Quintilis  i5S 

Marked  evermore  with  white. 
Not  without  secret  trouble 

Our  bravest  saw  the  foes  ; 
For  girt  by  threescore  thousand  spears 

The  thirty  standards  rose.  160 

From  every  warlike  city 

That  boasts  the  Latian  name, 
Foredoomed  to  dogs  and  vultures, 

That  gallant  army  came  : 
From  Setia's  purple  vineyards,  165 

From  Norba's  ancient  wall, 
From  the  white  streets  of  Tusculum, 

The  proudest  town  of  all ; 
From  where  the  Witch's  Fortress 

O'erhangs  the  dark-blue  seas;  170 

From  the  still  glassy  lake  that  sleeps 

Beneath  Aricia's  trees  — 
Those  trees  in  whose  dim  shadow 

The  ghastly  priest  doth  reign. 
The  priest  who  slew  the  slayer,  ^75 

And  shall  himself  be  slain  ; 
From  the  drear  banks  of  Ufens, 

Where  flights  of  marsh-fowl  play, 


THE  BATTLE    OF   THE  LAKE   RE  GILL  US.  67 

And  buffaloes  lie  wallowing 

Through  the  hot  summer's  day;  iSo 

From  the  gigantic  watch-towers, 

No  work  of  earthly  men, 
Whence  Cora's  sentinels  o'erlook 

The  never-ending  fen ; 
From  the  Laurentian  jungle,  185 

The  wild  hog's  reedy  home ; 
From  the  green  steeps  whence  Anio  leaps 

In  floods  of  snow-white  foam. 

XI. 

Aricia,  Cora,  Norba, 

Velitrae,  with  the  might  19° 

Of  Setia  and  of  Tusculum, 

Were  marshalled  on  the  right. 
Their  leader  was  Mamilius, 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name; 
Upon  his  head  a  helmet  195 

Of  red  gold  shone  like  flame ; 
High  on  a  gallant  charger 

Of  dark-gray  hue  he  rode  ; 
Over  his  gilded  armor 

A  vest  of  purple  flowed,  200 

Woven  in  the  land  of  sunrise 

By  Syria's  dark-browed  daughters. 
And  by  the  sails  of  Carthage  brought 

Far  o'er  the  southern  waters. 

XII. 

Lavinium  and  Laurentum  205 

Had  on  the  left  their  post, 
With  all  the  banners  of  the  marsh 

And  banners  of  the  coast. 


68  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Their  leader  was  false  Sextus, 

That  wrought  the  deed  of  shame ;  210 

With  restless  pace  and  haggard  face 

To  his  last  field  he  came. 
Men  said  he  saw  strange  visions 

Which  none  beside  might  see, 
And  that  strange  sounds  were  in  his  ears  215 

Which  none  might  hear  but  he. 
A  woman  fair  and  stately, 

But  pale  as  are  the  dead. 
Oft  through  the  watches  of  the  night 

Sat  spinning  by  his  bed.  220 

And  as  she  plied  the  distaff, 

In  a  sweet  voice  and  low 
She  sang  of  great  old  houses 

And  fights  fought  long  ago. 
So  spun  she  and  so  sang  she  225 

Until  the  east  was  gray, 
Then  pointed  to  her  bleeding  breast, 

And  shrieked,  and  fled  away. 

XIII. 

But  in  the  centre  thickest 

Were  ranged  the  shields  of  foes,  230 

And  from  the  centre  loudest 

The  cry  of  battle  rose. 
There  Tibur  marched  and  Pedum 

Beneath  proud  Tarquin's  rule, 
And  Ferentinum  of  the  rock,  235 

And  Gabii  of  the  pool. 
There  rode  the  Volscian  succors ; 

There,  in  a  dark  stern  ring. 
The  Roman  exiles  gathered  close 

Around  the  ancient  kins;.  240 


THE   BATTLE    OF   THE   LAKE   REGILLUS.  69 

Though  white  as  Mount  Soracte, 

When  winter  nights  are  long, 
His  beard  flowed  down  o'er  mail  and  belt, 

His  heart  and  hand  were  strong ; 
Under  his  hoary  eyebrows  245 

Still  flashed  forth  quenchless  rage, 
And,  if  the  lance  shook  in  his  gripe, 

'T  was  more  with  hate  than  age. 
Close  at  his  side  was  Titus 

On  an  Apulian  steed —  250 

Titus,  the  youngest  Tarquin, 

Too  good  for  such  a  breed. 

XIV. 

Now  on  each  side  the  leaders 

Give  signal  for  the  charge  ; 
And  on  each  side  the  footmen  255 

Strode  on  with  lance  and  targe; 
And  on  each  side  the  horsemen 

Struck  their  spurs  deep  in  gore, 
And  front  to  front  the  armies 

Met  with  a  mighty  roar;  260 

And  under  that  great  battle 

The  earth  with  blood  was  red ; 
And,  like  the  Pomptine  fog  at  morn. 

The  dust  hung  overhead  ; 
And  louder  still  and  louder  265 

Rose  from  the  darkened  field 
The  braying  of  the  war-horns, 

The  clang  of  sword  and  shield. 
The  rush  of  squadrons  sweeping 

Like  whirlwinds  o'er  the  plain,  270 

The  shouting  of  the  slayers 

And  screeching  of  the  slain. 


70  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 


XV. 


False  Sextus  rode  out  foremost, 

His  look  was  high  and  bold  ; 
His  corslet  was  of  bison's  hide,  275 

Plated  with  steel  and  gold. 
As  glares  the  famished  eagle 

From  the  Digentian  rock 
On  a  choice  lamb  that  bounds  alone 

Before  Bandusia's  flock,  280 

Herminius  glared  on  Sextus 

And  came  with  eagle  speed, 
Herminius  on  black  Auster, 

Brave  champion  on  brave  steed  ; 
In  his  right  hand  the  broadsword  285 

That  kept  the  bridge  so  well. 
And  on  his  helm  the  crown  he  won 

When  proud  Fidenae  fell. 
Woe  to  the  maid  whose  lover 

Shall  cross  his  path  to-day  !  290 

False  Sextus  saw  and  trembled. 

And  turned  and  fled  away. 
As  turns,  as  flies,  the  woodman 

In  the  Calabrian  brake, 
When  through  the  reeds  gleams  the  round  eye    295 

Of  that  fell  speckled  snake, 
So  turned,  so  fled,  false  Sextus, 

And  hid  him  in  the  rear. 
Behind  the  dark  Lavinian  ranks 

Bristling  with  crest  and  spear.  3°° 

XVI. 

But  far  to  north  yEbutius, 
The  Master  of  the  Knights, 


THE   BATTLE    OF    THE   LAKE   KEGJLLUS.  71 

Gave  Tubero  of  Norba 

To  feed  the  Porcian  kites. 
Next  under  those  red  horse-hoofs  30S 

Flaccus  of  Setia  lay  ; 
Better  had  he  been  pruning 

Among  his  elms  that  day. 
Mamilius  saw  the  slaughter, 

And  tossed  his  golden  crest,  3^° 

And  towards  the  Master  of  the  Knights 

Through  the  thick  battle  pressed. 
yEbutius  smote  Mamilius 

So  fiercely  on  the  shield 
That  the  great  lord  of  Tusculum  3^5 

Well  nigh  rolled  on  the  field. 
Mamilius  smote  ^Ebutius, 

With  a  good  aim  and  true, 
Just  where  the  neck  and  shoulder  join, 

And  pierced  him  through  and  through ;  320 

And  brave  yEbutius  Elva 

Fell  swooning  to  the  ground, 
But  a  thick  wall  of  bucklers 

Encompassed  him  around. 
His  clients  from  the  battle  325 

Bare  him  some  little  space. 
And  filled  a  helm  from  the  dark  lake. 

And  bathed  his  brow  and  face; 
And  when  at  last  he  opened 

His  swimming  eyes  to  light,  33° 

Men  say  the  earliest  word  he  spake 

Was,  "  Friends,  how  goes  the  fight  1  " 


But  meanwhile  in  the  centre 

Great  deeds  of  arms  were  wrought; 


72  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

There  Aulus  the  Dictator  335 

And  there  Valerius  fought. 
Aulus  with  his  good  broadsword 

A  bloody  passage  cleared 
To  where,  amidst  the  thickest  foes, 

He  saw  the  long  white  beard.  34° 

Flat  lighted  that  good  broadsword 

Upon  proud  Tarquin's  head. 
He  dropped  the  lance,  he  dropped  the  reins ; 

He  fell  as  fall  the  dead. 
Down  Aulus  springs  to  slay  him,  345 

With  eyes  like  coals  of  fire  ; 
But  faster  Titus  hath  sprung  down, 

And  hath  bestrode  his  sire. 
Latian  captains,  Roman  knights. 

Fast  down  to  earth  they  spring,  35° 

And  hand  to  hand  they  fight  on  foot 

Around  the  ancient  king. 
First  Titus  gave  tall  Caeso 

A  death  wound  in  the  face ; 
Tall  Caeso  was  the  bravest  man  355 

Of  the  brave  Fabian  race ; 
Aulus  slew  Rex  of  Gabii, 

The  priest  of  Juno's  shrine ; 
Valerius  smote  down  Julius, 

Of  Rome's  great  Julian  line —  360 

Julius,  who  left  his  mansion 

High  on  the  Velian  hill. 
And  through  all  turns  of  weal  and  woe 

Followed  proud  Tarquin  still. 
Now  right  across  proud  Tarquin  3^5 

A  corpse  was  Julius  laid  ; 
And  Titus  groaned  with  rage  and  grief. 

And  at  Valerius  made. 


THE   BATTLE    OF   THE   LAKE   KEGILLUS.  73 

Valerius  struck  at  Titus 

And  lopped  off  half  his  crest ;  37° 

But  Titus  stabbed  Valerius 

A  span  deep  in  the  breast. 
Like  a  mast  snapped  by  the  tempest, 

Valerius  reeled  and  fell. 
Ah!  woe  is  me  for  the  good  house  375 

That  loves  the  people  well ! 
Then  shouted  loud  the  Latines, 

And  with  one  rush  they  bore 
The  struggling  Romans  backward 

Three  lances'  length  and  more  ;  3^° 

And  up  they  took  proud  Tarquin 

And  laid  him  on  a  shield, 
And  four  strong  yeomen  bare  him. 

Still  senseless,  from  the  field. 

XVIII. 

But  fiercer  grew  the  fighting  3^5 

Around  Valerius  dead; 
For  Titus  dragged  him  by  the  foot, 

And  Aulus  by  the  head. 
"  On,  Latines,  on  !  "  quoth  Titus, 

"  See  how  the  rebels  fly ! "  39° 

"  Romans,  stand  firm  !  "  quoth  Aulus, 

"And  win  this  fight  or  die  ! 
They  must  not  give  Valerius 

To  raven  and  to  kite ; 
For  aye  Valerius  loathed  the  wrong,  395 

And  aye  upheld  the  right  •, 
And  for  your  wives  and  babies 

In  the  front  rank  he  fell. 
Now  play  the  men  for  the  good  house 

That  loves  the  people  well !  "  4°° 


74  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 


XIX. 


Then  tenfold  round  the  body 

The  roar  of  battle  rose, 
Like  the  roar  of  a  burning  forest 

When  a  strong  north  wind  blows. 
Now  backward  and  now  forward  405 

Rocked  furiously  the  fray, 
Till  none  could  see  Valerius, 

And  none  wist  where  he  lay. 
For  shivered  arms  and  ensigns 

Were  heaped  there  in  a  mound,  410 

And  corpses  stiff,  and  dying  men 

That  writhed  and  gnawed  the  ground ; 
And  wounded  horses  kicking 

And  snorting  purple  foam  ; 
Right  well  did  such  a  couch  befit  4^5 

A  Consular  of  Rome. 

XX. 

But  north  looked  the  Dictator; 

North  looked  he  long  and  hard, 
And  spake  to  Caius  Cossus, 

The  Captain  of  his  Guard:  420 

"  Caius,  of  all  the  Romans 

Thou  hast  the  keenest  sight; 
Say,  what  through  yonder  storm  of  dust 

Comes  from  the  Latian  right  ?  " 

XXI. 

Then  answered  Caius  Cossus  :  425 

"  I  see  an  evil  sight ; 
The  banner  of  proud  Tusculum 

Comes  from  the  Latian  right. 


THE   BATTLE    OF    THE   LAKE   REGILLUS.  75 

I  see  the  plumed  horsemen; 

And  far  before  the  rest  43° 

I  see  the  dark-gray  charger, 

I  see  the  purple  vest, 
I  see  the  golden  helmet 

That  shines  far  off  like  flame ; 
So  ever  rides  Mamilius,  435 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name." 

XXII, 

"  Now  hearken,  Caius  Cossus  ; 

Spring  on  thy  horse's  back  ; 
Ride  as  the  wolves  of  Apennine 

Were  all  upon  thy  track ;  44° 

Haste  to  our  southward  battle, 

And  never  draw  thy  rein 
Until  thou  find  Herminius, 

And  bid  him  come  amain." 


So  Aulus  spake,  and  turned  him  445 

Again  to  that  fierce  strife  ; 
And  Caius  Cossus  mounted. 

And  rode  for  death  and  life. 
Loud  clanged  beneath  his  horse-hoofs 

The  helmets  of  the  dead,  45° 

And  many  a  curdling  pool  of  blood 

Splashed  him  from  heel  to  head. 
So  came  he  far  to  southward. 

Where  fought  the  Roman  host 
Against  the  banners  of  the  marsh  455 

And  banners  of  the  coast. 
Like  corn  before  the  sickle 

The  stout  Lavinians  fell 


76  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Beneath  the  edge  of  the  true  sword 

That  kept  the  bridge  so  well.  460, 

XXIV. 

"  Herminius,  Aulus  greets  thee  ; 

He  bids  thee  come  with  speed 
To  help  our  central  battle, 

For  sore  is  there  our  need. 
There  wars  the  youngest  Tarquin,  465 

And  there  the  Crest  of  Flame, 
The  Tusculan  Mamilius, 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name. 
Valerius  hath  fallen  fighting 

In  front  of  our  array,  47° 

And  Aulus  of  the  seventy  fields 

Alone  upholds  the  day." 


Herminius  beat  his  bosom, 

But  never  a  word  he  spake. 
He  clapped  his  hand  on  Auster's  mane,  475 

He  gave  the  reins  a  shake  ; 
Away,  away,  went  Auster 

Like  an  arrow  from  the  bow ; 
Black  Auster  was  the  fleetest  steed 

From  Aufidus  to  Po.  480 

XXVI. 

Right  glad  were  all  the  Romans 

Who,  in  that  hour  of  dread, 
Against  great  odds  bare  up  the  war 

Around  Valerius  dead, 
When  from  the  south  the  cheering  485 

Rose  with  a  mighty  swell  : 


THE   BATTLE    OF    THE   LAKE    REGILLUS.  77 

"  Herminius  comes,  Herminius, 
Who  kept  the  bridge  so  well!" 


Mamilius  spied  Herminius, 

And  dashed  across  the  way :  49° 

"  Herminius,  I  have  sought  thee 

Through  many  a  bloody  day. 
One  of  us  two,  Herminius, 

Shall  never  more  go  home. 
I  will  lay  on  for  Tusculum,  495 

And  lay  thou  on  for  Rome ! " 

XXVIII. 

All  round  them  paused  the  battle, 

While  met  in  mortal  fray 
The  Roman  and  the  Tusculan, 

The  horses  black  and  gray.  5°° 

Herminius  smote  Mamilius 

Through  breastplate  and  through  breast, 
And  fast  flowed  out  the  purple  blood 

Over  the  purple  vest. 
Mamilius  smote  Herminius  505 

Through  head-piece  and  through  head ; 
And  side  by  side  those  chiefs  of  pride 

Together  fell  down  dead. 
Down  fell  they  dead  together 

In  a  great  lake  of  gore  ;  5'° 

And  still  stood  all  who  saw  them  fall 

While  men  might  count  a  score. 

XXIX. 

Fast,  fast,  with  heels  wild  spurning. 
The  dark-gray  charger  fled  ; 


78  LA  YS    OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

He  burst  through  ranks  of  fighting  men,  ^^S 

He  sprang  o'er  heaps  of  dead. 
His  bridle  far  outstreaming, 

His  flanks  all  blood  and  foam, 
He  sought  the  southern  mountains, 

The  mountains  of  his  home.  520 

The  pass  was  steep  and  rugged. 

The  wolves  they  howled  and  whined  ; 
But  he  ran  like  a  whirlwind  up  the  pass. 

And  he  left  the  wolves  behind. 
Through  many  a  startled  hamlet  5^5 

Thundered  his  flying  feet ; 
He  rushed  through  the  gate  of  Tusculum, 

He  rushed  up  the  long  white  street ; 
He  rushed  by  tower  and  temple, 

And  paused  not  from  his  race  53° 

Till  he  stood  before  his  master's  door 

In  the  stately  market-place. 
And  straightway  round  him  gathered 

A  pale  and  trembling  crowd ; 
And,  when  they  knew  him,  cries  of  rage  535 

Brake  forth,  and  wailing  loud  ; 
And  women  rent  their  tresses 

For  their  great  prince's  fall ; 
And  old  men  girt  on  their  old  swords, 

And  went  to  man  the  wall.  54° 

XXX. 

But  like  a  graven  image 

Black  Auster  kept  his  place, 
And  ever  wistfully  he  looked 

Into  his  master's  face. 
The  raven  mane  that  daily,  545 

With  pats  and  fond  caresses, 


THE   BATTLE    OF    THE   LAKE   REGLLLUS.  79 

The  young  Herminia  washed  and  combed,. 

And  twined  in  even  tresses, 
And  decked  with  colored  ribbons 

From  her  own  gay  attire,  55° 

Hung  sadly  o'er  her  father's  corpse 

In  carnage  and  in  mire. 
Forth  with  a  shout  sprang  Titus 

And  seized  black  Auster's  rein. 
Then  Aulus  sware  a  fearful  oath,  555 

And  ran  at  him  amain  : 
"  The  furies  of  thy  brother 

With  me  and  mine  abide, 
If  one  of  your  accursed  house 

Upon  black  Auster  ride!  "  S^o 

As  on  an  Alpine  watch-tower 

From  heaven  comes  down  the  flame, 
Full  on  the  neck  of  Titus 

The  blade  of  Aulus  came  ; 
And  out  the  red  blood  spouted  5^5 

In  a  wide  arch  and  tall. 
As  spouts  a  fountain  in  the  court 

Of  some  rich  Capuan's  hall. 
The  knees  of  all  the  Latines 

Were  loosened  with  dismay  57o 

When  dead,  on  dead  Herminius, 

The  bravest  Tarquin  lay. 

XXXI. 

And  Aulus  the  Dictator 

Stroked  Auster's  raven  mane  ; 
With  heed  he  looked  unto  the  girths,  575 

With  heed  unto  the  rein  : 
"  Now  bear  me  well,  black  Auster, 

Into  yon  thick  array. 


80  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

And  thou  and  I  will  have  revenge 

For  thy  good  lord  this  day."  580 

XXXII. 

So  spake  he,  and  was  buckling 

Tighter  black  Auster's  band, 
When  he  was  aware  of  a  princely  pair 

That  rode  at  his  right  hand. 
So  like  they  were,  no  mortal  •  ^l 

Might  one  from  other  know; 
White  as  snow  their  armor  was. 

Their  steeds  were  white  as  snow. 
Never  on  earthly  anvil 

Did  such  rare  armor  gleam,  590 

And  never  did  such  gallant  steeds 

Drink  of  an  earthly  stream. 

XXXIII. 

And  all  who  saw  them  trembled. 

And  pale  grew  every  cheek ; 
And  Aulus  the  Dictator  595 

Scarce  gathered  voice  to  speak : 
"  Say  by  what  name  men  call  you  ; 

What  city  is  your  home  ? 
And  wherefore  ride  ye  in  such  guise 

Before  the  ranks  of  Rome  ?  "  600 


"By  many  names  men  call  us, 

In  many  lands  we  dwell : 
Well  Samothracia  knows  us, 

Cyrene  knows  us  well; 
Our  house  in  gay  Tarentum  60S 

Is  hung  each  morn  with  flowers  ; 


THE   BATTLE    OF   THE   LAKE   REGILLUS.  SI 

High  o'er  the  masts  of  Syracuse 

Our  marble  portal  towers  ; 
But  by  the  proud  Eurotas 

Is  our  dear  native  home  ;  6io 

And  for  the  right  we  come  to  fight 

Before  the  ranks  of  Rome." 


So  answered  those  strange  horsemen, 

And  each  couched  low  his  spear ; 
And  forthwith  all  the  ranks  of  Rome  615 

Were  bold  and  of  good  cheer; 
And  on  the  thirty  armies 

Came  wonder  and  affright, 
And  Ardea  wavered  on  the  left, 

And  Cora  on  the  right.  620 

"  Rome  to  the  charge !  "  cried  Aulus ; 

"  The  foe  begins  to  yield  ! 
Charge  for  the  hearth  of  Vesta ! 

Charge  for  the  Golden  Shield  ! 
Let  no  man  stop  to  plunder,  625 

But  slay,  and  slay,  and  slay  ; 
The  Gods  who  live  forever 

Are  on  our  side  to-day." 

xxxvi. 
Then  the  fierce  trumpet-flourish 

From  earth  to  heaven  arose.  630 

The  kites  know  well  the  long  stern  swell 

That  bids  the  Romans  close. 
Then  the  good  sword  of  Aulus 

Was  lifted  up  to  slay; 
Then  like  a  crag  down  Apennine  635 

Rushed  Auster  through  the  fray. 


82  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

But  under  those  strange  horsemen 

Still  thicker  lay  the  slain; 
And  after  those  strange  horses 

Black  Auster  toiled  in  vain.  640 

Behind  them  Rome's  long  battle 

Came  rolling  on  the  foe, 
Ensigns  dancing  wild  above, 

Blades  all  in  line  below. 
So  comes  the  Po  in  flood-time  645 

Upon  the  Celtic  plain  ; 
So  comes  the  squall,  blacker  than  night, 

Upon  the  Adrian  main. 
Now,  by  our  Sire  Quirinus, 

It  was  a  goodly  sight  650 

To  see  the  thirty  standards 

Swept  down  the  tide  of  flight. 
So  flies  the  spray  of  Adria 

When  the  black  squall  doth  blow ; 
So  corn-sheaves  in  the  flood-time  655 

Spin  down  the  whirling  Po. 
False  Sextus  to  the  mountains 

Turned  first  his  horse's  head; 
And  fast  fled  Ferentinum, 

And  fast  Lanuvium  fled.  660 

The  horsemen  of  Nomentum 

Spurred  hard  out  of  the  fray ; 
The  footmen  of  Velitrae 

Threw  shield  and  spear  away; 
And  underfoot  was  trampled,  665 

Amidst  the  mud  and  gore. 
The  banner  of  proud  Tusculum, 

That  never  stooped  before  ; 
And  down  went  Flavins  Faustus, 

Who  led  his  stately  ranks  670 


THE  BATTLE    OF   THE   LAKE   REGILLUS.  S3 

From  where  the  apple-blossoms  wave 

On  Anio's  echoing  banks  ; 
And  Tullus  of  Arpinum, 

Chief  of  the  Volscian  aids, 
And  Metius  with  the  long  fair  curls,  675 

The  love  of  Anxur's  maids, 
And  the  white  head  of  Vulso, 

The  great  Arician  seer. 
And  Nepos  of  Laurentum, 

The  hunter  of  the  deer ;  680 

And  in  the  back  false  Sextus 

Felt  the  good  Roman  steel. 
And  wriggling  in  the  dust  he  died 

Like  a  worm  beneath  the  wheel ; 
And  fliers  and  pursuers  685 

Were  mingled  in  a  mass ; 
And  far  away  the  battle 

Went  roaring  through  the  pass, 

XXXVII 

Sempronius  Atratinus 

Sat  in  the  Eastern  Gate  ;  690 

Beside  him  were  three  Fathers, 

Each  in  his  chair  of  state  — 
Fabius,  whose  nine  stout  grandsons 

That  day  were  in  the  field. 
And  Manlius,  eldest  of  the  Twelve  695 

Who  kept  the  Golden  Shield, 
And  Sergius,  the  High  Pontiff, 

For  wisdom  far  renowned; 
In  all  Etruria's  colleges 

Was  no  such  Pontiff  found.  7oo 

And  all  around  the  portal. 

And  high  above  the  wall, 


84  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Stood  a  great  throng  of  people, 

But  sad  and  silent  all  ; 
Young  lads  and  stooping  elders  70s 

That  might  not  bear  the  mail, 
Matrons  with  lips  that  quivered. 

And  maids  with  faces  pale. 
Since  the  first  gleam  of  daylight, 

Sempronius  had  not  ceased  710 

To  listen  for  the  rushing 

Of  horse-hoofs  from  the  east. 
The  mist  of  eve  was  rising, 

The  sun  was  hastening  down, 
When  he  was  aware  of  a  princely  pair  7*S 

Fast  pricking  towards  the  town. 
So  like  they  were,  man  never 

Saw  twins  so  like  before  ; 
Red  with  gore  their  armor  was, 

Their  steeds  were  red  with  gore.  720 

XXXVIII. 

"  Hail  to  the  great  Asylum  ! 

Hail  to  the  hill-tops  seven ! 
Hail  to  the  fire  that  burns  for  aye, 

And  the  shield  that  fell  from  heaven  ! 
This  day,  by  Lake  Regillus,  725 

Under  the  Porcian  height. 
All  in  the  lands  of  Tusculum, 

Was  fought  a  glorious  fight. 
To-morrow  your  Dictator 

Shall  bring  in  triumph  home  73° 

The  spoils  of  thirty  cities 

To  deck  the  shrines  of  Rome  !  " 


THE   BATTLE    OE   THE   LAKE   EE  GILL  US.  85 

XXXIX. 

Then  burst  from  that  great  concourse 

A  shout  that  shook  the  towers, 
And  some  ran  north,  and  some  ran  south,  735 

Crying,  "  The  day  is  ours  !  " 
But  on  rode  the  strange  horsemen 

With  slow  and  lordly  pace. 
And  none  who  saw  their  bearing 

Durst  ask  their  name  or  race.  74° 

On  rode  they  to  the  Forum, 

While  laurel-boughs  and  flowers, 
From  housetops  and  from  windows, 

Fell  on  their  crests  in  showers. 
When  they  drew  nigh  to  Vesta,  745 

They  vaulted  down  amain, 
And  washed  their  horses  in  the  well 

That  springs  by  Vesta's  fane. 
And  straight  again  they  mounted. 

And  rode  to  Vesta's  door ;  75° 

Then,  like  a  blast,  away  they  passed, 

And  no  man  saw  them  more. 

XL. 

And  all  the  people  trembled. 

And  pale  grew  every  cheek ; 
And  Sergius  the  High  Pontiff  7S5 

Alone  found  voice  to  speak : 
"  The  Gods  who  live  forever 

Have  fought  for  Rome  to-day ! 
These  be  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

To  whom  the  Dorians  pray.  760 

Back  comes  the  Chief  in  triumph 

Who  in  the  hour  of  fight 


86  LAYS  OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Hath  seen  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

In  harness  on  his  right. 
Safe  comes  the  ship  to  haven,  765 

Through  billows  and  through  gales, 
If  once  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Sit  shining  on  the  sails. 
Wherefore  they  washed  their  horses 

In  Vesta's  holy  well,  77° 

Wherefore  they  rode  to  Vesta's  door, 

I  know,  but  may  not  tell. 
Here,  hard  by  Vesta's  Temple, 

Build  we  a  stately  dome 
Unto  the  Great  Twin  Brethren  775 

Who  fought  so  well  for  Rome. 
And  when  the  months  returning 

Bring  back  this  day  of  fight. 
The  proud  Ides  of  Quintilis, 

Marked  evermore  with  white,  780 

Unto  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Let  all  the  people  throng 
With  chaplets  and  with  offerings. 

With  music  and  with  song  ; 
And  let  the  doors  and  windows  785 

Be  hung  with  garlands  all. 
And  let  the  Knights  be  summoned 

To  Mars  without  the  wall ; 
Thence  let  them  ride  in  purple 

With  joyous  trumpet-sound,  79° 

Each  mounted  on  his  war-horse. 

And  each  with  olive  crowned  ; 
And  pass  in  solemn  order 

Before  the  sacred  dome 
Where  dwell  the  Great  Twin  Brethren  795 

Who  fought  so  well  for  Rome  !  " 


VIRGINIA. 


A  COLLECTION  Consisting  exclusively  of  war-songs  would 
give  an  imperfect,  or  rather  an  erroneous,  notion  of  the 
spirit  of  the  old  Latin  ballads.  The  Patricians,  during 
more  than  a  century  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Kings, 
held  all  the  high  military  commands.  A  Plebeian,  even  5 
though,  like  Lucius  Siccius,  he  were  distinguished  by  his 
valor  and  knowledge  of  war,  could  serve  only  in  subor- 
dinate posts.  A  minstrel,  therefore,  who  wished  to  cele- 
brate the  early  triumphs  of  his  country,  could  hardly  take 
any  but  Patricians  for  his  heroes.  The  warriors  who  are  10 
mentioned  in  the  two  preceding  lays,  Horatius,  Lartius, 
Herminius,  Aulus  Posthumius,  ^butius  Elva,  Sempro- 
nius  Atratinus,  Valerius  Poplicola,  were  all  members  of 
the  dominant  order  ;  and  a  poet  who  was  singing  their 
praises,  whatever  his  own  political  opinions  might  be,  15 
would  naturally  abstain  from  insulting  the  class  to  which 
they  belonged,  and  from  reflecting  on  the  system  which 
had  placed  such  men  at  the  head  of  the  legions  of  the 
Commonwealth. 

But  there  was  a  class  of  compositions  in  which  the  20 
great  families  were  by  no  means  so  courteously  treated. 
No  parts  of  early  Roman  history  are  richer  with  poetical 
coloring  than  those  which  relate  to  the  long  contest  be- 
tween the  privileged  houses  and  the  commonalty.  The 
population  of  Rome  was,  from  a  very  early  period,  divided  25 
into  hereditary  castes,  which,  indeed,  readily  united  to 
repel  foreign  enemies,  but  which   regarded   each  other, 

87 


88  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

during  many  years,  with  bitter  animosity.  Between  those 
castes  there  was  a  barrier  hardly  less  strong  than  that 
which,  at  Venice,  parted  the  members  of  the  Great  Coun- 
cil from  their  countrymen.  In  some  respects,  indeed,  the 
5  line  which  separated  an  Icilius  or  a  Duilius  from  a  Pos- 
thumius  or  a  Fabius  was  even  more  deeply  marked  than 
that  which  separated  the  rower  of  a  gondola  from  a 
Contarini  or  a  Morosini.  At  Venice  the  distinction  was 
merely  civil.     At  Rome  it  was  both  civil  and  religious. 

lo  Among  the  grievances  under  which  the  Plebeians  suf- 
fered, three  were  felt  as  peculiarly  severe.  They  were 
excluded  from  the  highest  magistracies ;  they  were  ex- 
cluded from  all  share  in  the  public  lands  ;  and  they  were 
ground  down  to  the  dust  by  partial  and  barbarous  legis- 

15  lation  touching  pecuniary  contracts.  The  ruling  class  in 
Rome  was  a  moneyed  class  ;  and  it  made  and  adminis- 
tered the  laws  with  a  view  solely  to  its  own  interest. 
Thus  the  relation  between  lender  and  borrower  was 
mixed    up    with    the    relation    between    sovereign    and 

20  subject.  The  great  men  held  a  large  portion  of  the 
community  in  dependence  by  means  of  advances  at 
enormous  usury.  The  law  of  debt,  framed  by  creditors 
and  for  the  protection  of  creditors,  was  the  most  horrible 
that  has  ever  been  known  among  men.     The  liberty  and 

25  even  the  life  of  the  insolvent  were  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Patrician  money-lenders.  Children  often  became  slaves 
in  consequence  of  the  misfortunes  of  their  parents.  The 
debtor  was  imprisoned,  not  in  a  public  gaol  under  the  care 
of  impartial  public  functionaries,  but  in  a  private  work- 

30  house  belonging  to  the  creditor.  Frightful  stories  were 
told  respecting  these  dungeons.  It  was  said  that  tor- 
ture and  brutal  violation  were  common  ;  that  tight  stocks, 
heavy  chains,  scanty  measures  of  food,  were  used  to  pun- 
ish wretches  guilty  of  nothing  but  poverty;  and  that  brave 


VIRGINIA.  89 

soldiers,  whose  breasts  were  covered  with  honorable  scars, 
were  often  marked  still  more  deeply  on  the  back  by  the 
scourges  of  high-born  usurers. 

The  Plebeians  were,  however,  not  wholly  without  consti- 
tutional rights.  From  an  early  period  they  had  been  5 
admitted  to  some  share  of  political  power.  They  were 
enrolled  each  in  his  century,  and  were  allowed  a  share, 
considerable  though  not  proportioned  to  their  numerical 
strength,  in  the  disposal  of  those  high  dignities  from  which 
they  were  themselves  excluded.  Thus  their  position  bore  lo 
some  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Irish  Catholics  during  the 
interval  between  the  year  1792  and  the  year  1829.  The 
Plebeians  had  also  the  privilege  of  annually  appointing 
officers,  named  Tribunes,  who  had  no  active  share  in  the 
government  of  the  Commonwealth,  but  who,  by  degrees,  15 
acquired  a  power  formidable  even  to  the  ablest  and  most 
resolute  Consuls  and  Dictators.  The  person  of  the  Trib- 
une was  inviolable;  and,  though  he  could  directly  effect 
little,  he  could  obstruct  everything. 

During  more  than  a  century  after  the  institution  of  the  20 
Tribuneship,  the  Commons  struggled  manfully  for  the  re- 
moval of  the  grievances  under  which  they  labored  ;  and,  in 
spite  of  many  checks  and  reverses,  succeeded  in  wringing 
concession  after  concession  from  the  stubborn  aristocracy. 
At  length,  in  the  year  of  the  city  378,  both  parties  mustered  25 
their  whole  strength  for  their  last  and  most  desperate  con- 
flict.   The  popular  and  active  Tribune,  Caius  Licinius,  pro- 
posed the  three  memorable  laws  which  are  called  by  his 
name,  and  which  were  intended  to  redress  the  three  great 
evils  of  which  the  Plebeians  complained.     He  was  sup-  30 
ported  with  eminent  ability  and  firmness  by  his  colleague, 
Lucius  Sextius.     The  struggle  appears  to  have  been  the 
fiercest  that  ever  in  any  community  terminated  without  an 
appeal  to  arms.      If  such  a  contest  had  raged  in  any  Greek 


90  LAVS  OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

city,  the  streets  would  have  run  with  blood.  But,  even  in 
the  paroxysms  of  faction,  the  Roman  retained  his  gravity, 
his  respect  for  law,  and  his  tenderness  for  the  lives  of  his 
fellow-citizens.  Year  after  year  Licinius  and  Sextius  were 
5  re-elected  Tribunes.  Year  after  year,  if  the  narrative  which 
has  come  down  to  us  is  to  be  trusted,  they  continued  to 
exert,  to  the  full  extent,  their  power  of  stopping  the  whole 
machine  of  government.  No  curule  magistrates  could 
be  chosen  ;  no  military  muster  could  be  held.     We  know 

lo  too  little  of  the  state  of  Rome  in  those  days  to  be  able  to 
conjecture  how,  during  that  long  anarchy,  the  peace  was 
kept  and  ordinary  justice  administered  between  man  and 
man.  The  animosity  of  both  parties  rose  to  the  greatest 
height.      The  excitement,  we   may  well   suppose,  would 

15  have  been  peculiarly  intense  at  the  annual  election  of 
Tribunes.  On  such  occasions  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  great  families  did  all  that  could  be  done,  by 
threats  and  caresses,  to  break  the  union  of  the  Plebeians. 
That  union,  however,  proved  indissoluble.     At  length  the 

20  good  cause  triumphed.  The  Licinian  laws  were  carried. 
Lucius  Sextius  was  the  first  Plebeian  Consul,  Caius  Licin- 
ius the  third. 

The  results  of  this  great  change  were  singularly  happy 
and  glorious.     Two  centuries  of  prosperity,  harmony,  and 

25  victory  followed  the  reconciliation  of  the  orders.  Men 
who  remembered  Rome  engaged  in  waging  petty  wars 
almost  within  sight  of  the  Capitol  lived  to  see  her  the 
mistress  of  Italy.  While  the  disabilities  of  the  Plebeians 
continued,  she  was  scarcely  able  to  maintain  her  ground 

30  against  the  Volscians  and  Hernicans.  When  those  dis- 
abilities were  removed,  she  rapidly  became  more  than  a 
match  for  Carthage  and  Macedon. 

During  the  great  Licinian  contest  the  Plebeian  poets 
were,  doubtless,  not  silent.     Even  in  modern  times  songs 


VIRGINIA.  91 

have  been  by  no  means  without  inHuence  on  public  affairs  ; 
and  we  may  therefore  infer  that,  in  a  society  where  print- 
ing was  unknown  and  where  books  were  rare,  a  pathetic 
or  humorous  party-ballad  must  have  produced  effects  such 
as  we  can  but  faintly  conceive.  It  is  certain  that  satirical  5 
poems  were  common  at  Rome  from  a  very  early  period. 
The  rustics,  who  lived  at  a  distance  from  the  seat  of 
government,  and  took  little  part  in  the  strife  of  factions, 
gave  vent  to  their  petty  local  animosities  in  coarse  Fescen- 
nine  verse.  The  lampoons  of  the  city  were  doubtless  of  lo 
a  higher  order;  and  their  sting  was  early  felt  by  the 
nobility.  For  in  the  Twelve  Tables,  long  before  the  time 
of  the  Licinian  laws,  a  severe  punishment  was  denounced 
against  the  citizen  who  should  compose  or  recite  verses 
reflecting  on  another.^  Satire  is,  indeed,  the  only  sort  of  15 
composition  in  which  the  Latin  poets  whose  works  have 
come  down  to  us  were  not  mere  imitators  of  foreign  mod- 
els ;  and  it  is  therefore  the  only  sort  of  composition  in 
which  they  have  never  been  rivalled.  It  was  not,  like 
their  tragedy,  their  comedy,  their  epic  and  lyric  poetry,  a  20 
hothouse  plant  which,  in  return  for  assiduous  and  skil- 
ful culture,  gave  only  scanty  and  sickly  fruits.  It  was 
hardy  and  full  of  sap ;  and  in  all  the  various  juices  which 
it  yielded  might  be  distinguished  the  flavor  of  the  Auso- 
nian  soil.  "  Satire,"  says  Quinctilian  with  just  pride,  "  is  25 
all  our  own."  Satire  sprang,  in  truth,  naturally  from  the 
constitution  of  the  Roman  government  and  from  the  spirit 
of  the  Roman  people  ;  and,  though  at  length  subjected 
to  metrical  rules  derived  from  Greece,  retained  to  the  last 

1  Cicero  justly  infers  from  this  law  that  there  had  been  early  Latin 
poets  whose  works  had  been  lost  before  his  time.  '  Quamquam  id 
quidem  etiam  xii  tabulae  declarant,  condi  jam  turn  solitum  esse  car- 
men, quod  ne  liceret  fieri  ad  alterius  injuriam  lege  sanxerunt.'  — 
Tusc.  iv.  2. 


92  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

an  essentially  Roman  character.  Lucilius  was  the  earliest 
satirist  whose  works  were  held  in  esteem  under  the  Caesars. 
But,  many  years  before  Lucilius  was  born,  Naevius  had 
been  flung  into  a  dungeon  and  guarded  there  with  cir- 
5  cumstances  of  unusual  rigor,  on  account  of  the  bitter 
lines  in  which  he  had  attacked  the  great  Caecilian  family.^ 
The  genius  and  spirit  of  the  Roman  satirist  survived  the 
liberty  of  their  country,  and  were  not  extinguished  by  the 
cruel   despotism   of    the   Julian   and    Flavian   Emperors. 

10  The  great  poet  who  told  the  story  of  Domitian's  turbot 

was  the  legitimate  successor  of  those  forgotten  minstrels 

whose  songs  animated  the  factions  of  the  infant  Republic. 

These  minstrels,  as  Niebuhr  has  remarked,  appear  to 

have  generally  taken  the  popular  side.    We  can  hardly  be 

15  mistaken  in  supposing  that,  at  the  great  crisis  of  the  civil 
conflict,  they  employed  themselves  in  versifying  all  the 
most  powerful  and  virulent  speeches  of  the  Tribunes,  and 
in  heaping  abuse  on  the  leaders  of  the  aristocracy.  Every 
personal  defect,  every  domestic  scandal,  every  tradition 

20  dishonorable  to  a  noble  house,  would  be  sought  out, 
brought  into  notice,  and  exaggerated.  The  illustrious 
head  of  the  aristocratical  party,  Marcus  Furius  Camillus, 
might  perhaps  be,  in  some  measure,  protected  by  his  ven- 
erable age  and  by  the  memory  of  his  great  services  to 

25  the  State.  But  Appius  Claudius  Crassus  enjoyed  no  such 
immunity.  He  was  descended  from  a  long  line  of  ances- 
tors distinguished  by  their  haughty  demeanor,  and  by  the 
inflexibility  with  which  they  had  withstood  all  the  demands 
of  the  Plebeian  order.     While  the  political  conduct  and 

30  the  deportment  of  the  Claudian  nobles  drew  upon  them 

the  fiercest  public  hatred,  they  were  accused  of  wanting, 

if  any  credit  is  due  to  the  early  history  of  Rome,  a  class 

of  qualities  which,  in  the  military  commonwealth,  is  suf- 

1  Plautus,  Miles  Gloi-ios2ts.     Auhis  Gellius,  iii.  3. 


VIRGINIA.  93 

ficient  to  cover  a  multitude  of  offences.  The  chiefs  of 
the  family  appear  to  have  been  eloquent,  versed  in  civil 
business,  and  learned  after  the  fashion  of  their  age ;  but 
in  war  they  were  not  distinguished  by  skill  or  valor. 
Some  of  them,  as  if  conscious  where  their  weakness  lay,  5 
had,  when  filling  the  highest  magistracies,  taken  internal 
administration  as  their  department  of  public  business, 
and  left  the  military  command  to  their  colleagues.^  One 
of  them  had  been  intrusted  with  an  army,  and  had  failed 
ignominiously."  None  of  them  had  been  honored  with  a  10 
triumph.  None  of  them  had  achieved  any  martial  exploit, 
such  as  those  by  which  Lucius  Quinctius  Cincinnatus, 
Titus  Quinctius  Capitolinus,  Aulus  Cornelius  Cossus, 
and,  above  all,  the  great  Camillus,  had  extorted  the  re- 
luctant esteem  of  the  multitude.  During  the  Licinian  15 
conflict,  Appius  Claudius  Crassus  signalized  himself  by 
the  ability  and  severity  with  which  he  harangued  against 
the  two  great  agitators.  He  would  naturally,  therefore, 
be  the  favorite  mark  of  the  Plebeian  satirists ;  nor  would 
they  have  been  at  a  loss  to  find  a  point  on  which  he  was  20 
open  to  attack. 

His  grandfather,  called,  like  himself,  Appius  Claudius, 
had  left  a  name  as  much  detested  as  that  of  Sextus  Tar- 
quinius.  This  elder  Appius  had  been  Consul  more  than 
seventy  years  before  the  introduction  of  the  Licinian  laws.  25 
By  availing  himself  of  a  singular  crisis  in  public  feeling, 
he  had  obtained  the  consent  of  the  Commons  to  the 
abolition  of  the  Tribuneship,  and  had  been  the  chief  of 
that  Council  of  Ten  to  which  the  whole  direction  of  the 
State  had  been  committed.  In  a  few  months  his  admin-  30 
istration  had  become  universally  odious.  It  had  been 
swept  away  by  an  irresistible  outbreak  of  popular  fury  ; 

1  In  the  years  of  the  city  260,  304,  330. 
-  In  the  year  of  the  city  2S2. 


94  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

and  its  memory  was  still  held  in  abhorrence  by  the  whole 
city.  The  immediate  cause  of  the  downfall  of  this  execra- 
ble government  was  said  to  have  been  an  attempt  made 
by  Appius  Claudius  upon  the  chastity  of  a  beautiful  young 
5  girl  of  humble  birth.  The  story  ran  that  the  Decemvir, 
unable  to  succeed  by  bribes  and  solicitations,  resorted  to 
an  outrageous  act  of  tyranny.  A  vile  dependant  of  the 
Claudian  house  laid  claim  to  the  damsel  as  his  slave. 
The  cause  was  brought  before  the  tribunal  of  Appius. 

lo  The  wicked  magistrate,  in  defiance  of  the  clearest  proofs, 
gave  judgment  for  the  claimant.  But  the  girl's  father,  a 
brave  soldier,  saved  her  from  servitude  and  dishonor  by 
stabbing  her  to  the  heart  in  the  sight  of  the  whole  Forum. 
That  blow  was  the  signal  for  a  general  explosion.    Camp 

15  and  city  rose  at  once;  the  Ten  were  pulled  down;  the 
Tribuneship  was  re-established ;  and  Appius  escaped  the 
hands  of  the  executioner  only  by  a  voluntary  death. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  a  story  so  admirably 
adapted  to  the  purposes  both  of  the  poet  and  of  the  dema- 

20  gogue  would  be  eagerly  seized  upon  by  minstrels  burn- 
ing with  hatred  against  the  Patrician  order,  against  the 
Claudian  house,  and  especially  against  the  grandson  and 
namesake  of  the  infamous  Decemvir. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  judge  fairly  of  these  frag- 

25  ments  of  the  lay  of  Virginia,  he  must  imagine  himself  a 
Plebeian  who  has  just  voted  for  the  re-election  of  Sextius 
and  Licinius.  All  the  power  of  the  Patricians  has  been 
exerted  to  throw  out  the  two  great  champions  of  the 
Commons.     Every  Posthumius,  ^milius,   and  Cornelius 

30  has  used  his  influence  to  the  utmost.  Debtors  have  been 
let  out  of  the  workhouses  on  condition  of  voting  against 
the  men  of  the  people  ;  clients  have  been  posted  to  hiss 
and  interrupt  the  favorite  candidates  ;  Appius  Claudius 
Crassus  has  spoken  with  more  than  his  usual  eloquence 


VIRGINIA.  95 

and  asperity ;  all  has  been  in  vain ;  Licinius  and  Sextius 
have  a  fifth  time  carried  all  the  tribes;  work  is  suspended  ; 
the  booths  are  closed ;  the  Plebeians  bear  on  their  shoul- 
ders the  two  champions  of  liberty  through  the  Forum. 
Just  at  this  moment  it  is  announced  that  a  popular  poet,  5 
a  zealous  adherent  of  the  Tribunes,  has  made  a  new  song 
which  will  cut  the  Claudian  nobles  to  the  heart.  The 
crowd  gathers  round  him  and  calls  on  him  to  recite  it. 
He  takes  his  stand  on  the  spot  where,  according  to  tradi- 
tion, Virginia,  more  than  seventy  years  ago,  was  seized  10 
by  the  pander  of  Appius,  and  he  begins  his  story. 


VIRGINIA. 

FRAGMENTS  OF  A  LAY  SUNG  IN  THE  FORUM  ON  THE  DAY 
WHEREON  LUCIUS  SEXTIUS  SEXTINUS  LATERANUS  AND 
CAIUS  LICINIUS  CALVUS  STOLO  WERE  ELECTED  TRI- 
BUNES OF  THE  COMMONS  THE  FIFTH  TIME,  IN  THE 
YEAR     OF     THE     CITY     CCCLXXXII. 

Ye  good  men  of  the  Commons,  with  loving  hearts  and 

true, 
Who  stand  by  the  bold  Tribunes  that  still  have  stood  by 

you, 
Come,  make  a  circle  round  me,  and  mark  my  tale  with 

care,  — 
A  tale  of  what  Rome  pnce  hath  borne,  of  what  Rome  yet 

may  bear. 
This  is  no  Grecian  fable,  of  fountains  running  wine,  5 

Of  maids  with  snaky  tresses,  or  sailors  turned  to  swine. 
Here,  in  this  very  Forum,  under  the  noonday  sun, 


96  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

In  sight  of  all  the  people,  the  bloody  deed  was  done. 
Old  men  still  creep  among  us  who  saw  that  fearful  day, 
Just  seventy  years  and  seven  ago,  when  the  wicked  Ten 

bare  sway.  *o 

Of  all  the  wicked  Ten  still  the  names  are  held  accursed. 

And  of  all  the  wicked  Ten  Appius  Claudius  was  the  worst. 

He  stalked  along  the  Forum  like  King  Tarquin  in  his 
pride ; 

Twelve  axes  waited  on  him,  six  marching  on  a  side. 

The  townsmen  shrank  to  right  and  left,  and  eyed  as- 
kance with  fear  '5 

His  lowering  brow,  his  curling  mouth,  which  always 
seemed  to  sneer. 

That  brow  of  hate,  that  mouth  of  scorn,  marks  all  the 
kindred  still ; 

For  never  was  there  Claudius  yet  but  wished  the  Com- 
mons ill. 

Nor  lacks  he  fit  attendance;  for  close  behind  his  heels, 

With  outstretched  chin   and   crouching  pace,  the  client 

Marcus  steals,  20 

His  loins  girt  up  to  run  with  speed,  be  the  errand  what 
it  may. 

And  the  smile  flickering  on  his  cheek  for  aught  his  lord 
may  say. 

Such  varlets  pimp  and  jest  for  hire  among  the  lying 
Greeks  ; 

Such  varlets  still  are  paid  to  hoot  when  brave  Licinius 
speaks. 

Where'er  ye  shed  the  honey,  the  buzzing  flies  will  crowd ;  25 

Where'er  ye  fling  the  carrion,  the  raven's  croak  is  loud ; 

Where'er  down  Tiber  garbage  floats,  the  greedy  pike  ye 
see  ; 

And  wheresoe'er  such  lord  is  found,  such  client  still  will  be. 


VIRGINIA.  97 

Just  then,  as  through   one  cloudless  chink  in  a  black 

stormy  sky 
Shines  out  the  dewy  morning-star,  a  fair  young  girl  came 

by.  30 

With  her  small  tablets  in  her  hand  and  her  satchel  on  her 

arm, 
*  Home  she  went  bounding  from  the  school,  nor  dreamed  of 

shame  or  harm ; 
And  past  those  dreaded  axes  she  innocently  ran, 
With  bright,  frank  brow  that  had  not  learned  to  blush  at 

gaze  of  man  ; 
And  up  the  Sacred  Street  she  turned,  and,  as  she  danced 

along,  35 

She  warbled  gaily  to  herself  lines  of  the  good  old  song. 
How  for  a  sport  the  princes  came  spurring  from  the  camp, 
And  found  Lucrece  combing  the  fleece  under  the  midnight 

lamp. 
The  maiden  sang  as  sings  the  lark,  when  up  he  darts  his 

flight 
From  his  nest  in  the  green  April  corn  to  meet  the  morn- 
ing light ;  40 
And  Appius  heard  her  sweet  young  voice,  and  saw  her 

sweet  young  face, 
And  loved  her  with  the  accursed  love  of  his  accursed  race. 
And  all  along  the  Forum  and  up  the  Sacred  Street 
His  vulture  eye  pursued  the  trip  of  those  small  glancing 

feet. 


Over  the  Alban  mountains  the  light  of  morning  broke  ;  45 
From  all   the   roofs  of  the  Seven  Hills  curled  the  thin 

wreaths  of  smoke ; 
The  city-gates  were  opened ;  the  Forum,  all  alive 
With  buyers  and  with  sellers,  was  humming  like  a  hive ; 


98  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Blithely  on  brass  and  timber  the  craftsman's  stroke  was 

ringing, 
And  blithely  o'er  her  panniers  the  market-girl  was  singing,  50 
And  blithely  young  Virginia  came  smiling  from  her  home  ; 
Ah  !  woe  for  young  Virginia,  the  sweetest  maid  in  Rome  ! 
With  her  small  tablets  in  her  hand  and  her  satchel  on  her 

arm, 
Forth  she  went  bounding  to  the  school,  nor  dreamed  of 

shame  or  harm. 
She  crossed  the  Forum  shining  with  stalls  in  alleys  gay,     55 
And  just  had  reached  the  very  spot  whereon  I  stand  this 

day. 
When  up  the  varlet  Marcus  came ;  not  such  as  when  ere- 

while 
He  crouched  behind  his  patron's    heels  with   the    true 

client  smile ; 
He  came  with  lowering  forehead,  swollen  features,  and 

clenched  fist. 
And  strode  across  Virginia's  path,  and  caught  her  by  the 

wrist.  60 

Hard  strove  the  frighted  maiden  and  screamed  with  look 

aghast. 
And  at  her  scream  from  right  and  left  the  folk  came  run- 
ning fast,  — 
The  money-changer  Crispus,  with  his  thin  silver  hairs. 
And  Hanno  from  the  stately  booth  glittering  with  Punic 

wares, 
And    the    strong   smith  Muraena,  grasping  a  half-forged 

brand,  65 

And  Volero  the  flesher,  his  cleaver  in  his  hand. 
All  came  in  wrath  and  wonder,  for  all  knew  that  fair  child. 
And,  as  she  passed  them  twice  a  day,  all  kissed  their  hands 

and  smiled; 
And  the  strong  smith  Muraena  gave  Marcus  such  a  blow, 


VIRGINIA.  99 

The  caitiff  reeled  three  paces  back,  and  let  the  maiden  go.    70 
Yet  glared  he  fiercely  round  him,  and  growled  in  harsh, 

fell  tone, 
"  She 's  mine,  and  I  will  have  her  ;  I  seek  but  for  mine  own. 
She  is  my  slave,  born  in  my  house,  and  stolen  away  and 

sold. 
The  year  of  the  sore  sickness,  ere  she  was  twelve  hours  old. 
'Twas  in  the  sad  September,  the  month  of  wail  and  fright;  75 
Two  augurs  were  borne  forth  that  morn,  the  Consul  died 

ere  night. 
I  wait  on  Appius  Claudius,  I  waited  on  his  sire ; 
Let  him  who  works  the  client  wrong  beware  the  patron's 

ire !  " 

So  spake  the  varlet  Marcus  ;  and  dread  and  silence  came 
On  all  the  people  at  the  sound  of  the  great  Claudian  name.   80 
For  then  there  was  no  Tribune  to  speak  the  word  of  might. 
Which  makes  the  rich  man  tremble,  and  guards  the  poor 

man's  right. 
There  was  no  brave  Licinius,  no  honest  Sextius  then  ; 
But  all  the  city  in  great  fear  obeyed  the  wicked  Ten. 
Yet  ere  the  varlet  Marcus  again  might  seize  the  maid,        85 
Who  clung  tight   to   Muraena's    skirt    and    sobbed    and 

shrieked  for  aid, 
Forth  through  the  throng  of  gazers   the  young  Icilius 

pressed, 
And  stamped  his  foot,  and  rent  his  gown,  and  smote  upon 

his  breast, 
And  sprang  upon  that  column,  by  many  a  minstrel  sung. 
Whereon  three  mouldering  helmets,  three  rusting  swords, 

are  hung,  90 

And  beckoned  to  the  people,  and  in  bold  voice  and  clear 
Poured  thick  and  fast  the  burning  words  which  tyrants 

quake  to  hear : 


100  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

"  Now,  by  your  children's  cradles,  now  by  your  fathers' 

graves, 
Be  men  to-day,  Quirites,  or  be  forever  slaves  ! 
For  this  did  Servius  give  us  laws?     For  this  did  Lucrece 

bleed  ?  95 

For  this  was  the  great  vengeance  wrought  on  Tarquin's 

evil  seed  ? 
For  this  did  those  false  sons  make  red  the  axes  of  their  sire  ? 
For  this  did  Scasvola's  right  hand  hiss  in  the  Tuscan  fire  ? 
Shall  the  vile  fox-earth  awe  the  race  that  stormed  the 

lion's  den  ? 
Shall  we,  who  could  not  brook  one  lord,  crouch  to  the 

wicked  Ten  ?  too 

O  for  that  ancient  spirit  which  curbed  the  Senate's  will ! 
O  for  the  tents  which  in  old  time  whitened  the  Sacred  Hill  ! 
In  those  brave  days  our  fathers  stood  firmly  side  by  side  ; 
They  faced  the  Marcian  fury,  they  tamed  the  Fabian  pride  ; 
They  drove  the  fiercest  Quinctius  an  outcast  forth  from 

Rome ;  105 

They  sent  the  haughtiest  Claudius  with  shivered  fasces 

home. 
But  what  their  care  bequeathed  us  our  madness  flung  away ; 
All  the  ripe  fruit  of  threescore  years  was  blighted  in  a  day. 
Exult,  ye  proud  Patricians  !     The  hard-fought  fight  is  o'er. 
We  strove  for  honors  —  't  was  in  vain ;  for  freedom  — 

'tis  no  more.  no 

No  crier  to  the  polling  summons  the  eager  throng; 
No  Tribune  breathes  the  word  of  might  that  guards  the 

weak  from  wrong. 
Our  very  hearts,  that  were  so  high,  sink  down  beneath  your 

will. 
Riches  and  lands,  and  power  and  state  —  ye  have  them  ; 

keep  them  still. 
Still  keep  the  holy  fillets;  still  keep  the  purple  gown,       115 


VIRGINIA.  101 

The  axes  and  the  curule  chair,  the  car  and  laurel  crown ; 
Still  press  us  for  your  cohorts,  and,  when  the  fight  is  done, 
Still  fill  your  garners  from  the  soil  which  our  good  swords 

have  won. 
Still,  like  a  spreading  ulcer  which  leech-craft  may  not  cure, 
Let  your  foul  usance  eat  away  the  substance  of  the  poor.  120 
Still  let  your  haggard  debtors  bear  all  their  fathers  bore ; 
Still  let  your  dens  of  torment  be  noisome  as  of  yore ; 
No  fire  when  Tiber  freezes,  no  air  in  dog-star  heat ; 
And  store  of  rods  for  free-born  backs,  and  holes  for  free- 
born  feet. 
Heap  heavier  still  the  fetters,  bar  closer  still  the  grate  ;     125 
Patient  as  sheep  we  yield  us  up  unto  your  cruel  hate. 
But,  by  the  Shades  beneath  us,  and  by  the  Gods  above. 
Add  not  unto  your  cruel  hate  your  yet  more  cruel  love  ! 
Have  ye  not  graceful  ladies,  whose  spotless  lineage  springs 
From    Consuls    and    High    Pontiffs    and    ancient  Alban 

kings —  130 

Ladies  who  deign  not  on  our  paths  to  set  their  tender  feet, 
Who  from  their  cars  look  down  with  scorn  upon  the  won- 
dering street, 
Who  in  Corinthian  mirrors  their  own  proud  smiles  behold. 
And  breathe  of  Capuan  odors,  and  shine  with  Spanish 

gold  >. 
Then  leave  the  poor  Plebeian  his  single  tie  to  life  —        135 
The  sweet,  sweet  love  of  daughter,  of  sister,  and  of  wife. 
The  gentle  speech,  the  balm  for  all  that  his  vexed  soul 

endures, 
The  kiss,  in  which  he  half  forgets  even  such  a  yoke  as 

yours. 
Still  let  the  maiden's  beauty  swell  the  father's  breast  with 

pride  ; 
Still  let  the  bridegroom's  arms  infold  an  unpolluted  bride.  140 
Spare  us  the  inexpiable  wrong,  the  unutterable  shame, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARDAHA  r    -  '  p,  ^R  IJBRART 


102  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

That  turns  the  coward's  heart  to  steel,  the  sluggard's  blood 

to  flame, 
Lest,  when  our  latest  hope  is  fled,  ye  taste  of  our  despair, 
And  learn  by  proof   in   some  wild  hour  how  much  the 

wretched  dare." 

Straightway  Virginius  led  the  maid  a  little  space  aside,    145 
To  where  the  reeking  shambles  stood,  piled  up  with  horn 

and  hide. 
Close  to  yon  low  dark  archway,  where  in  a  crimson  flood 
Leaps  down  to  the  great  sewer  the  gurgling  stream  of 

blood. 
Hard  by,  a  flesher  on  a  block  had  laid  his  whittle  down ; 
Virginius  caught  the  whittle  up  and  hid  it  in  his  gown.     150 
And  then  his  eyes  grew  very  dim,  and  his  throat  began  to 

swell, 
And  in  a  hoarse,  changed  voice  he  spake,  "  Farewell,  sweet 

child  !     Farewell ! 
O,  how  I  loved  my  darling  !    Though  stern  I  sometimes  be. 
To  thee  thou  know'st  I  was  not  so.     Who  could  be  so  to 

thee  ? 
And  how  my  darling  loved  me  !   How  glad  she  was  to  hear  155 
My  footstep  on  the  threshold  when  I  came  back  last  year ! 
And  how  she  danced  with  pleasure  to  see  my  civic  crown, 
And  took  my  sword  and  hung  it  up,  and  brought  me  forth 

my  gown  ! 
Now,  all  those  things  are  over — yes,  all  thy  pretty  ways. 
Thy  needlework,  thy  prattle,  thy  snatches  of  old  lays  ;      160 
And  none  will  grieve  when  I  go  forth,  or  smile  when  I 

return, 
Or  watch  beside  the  old  man's  bed,  or  weep  upon  his  urn. 
The  house  that  was  the  happiest  within  the  Roman  walls. 


VIRGINIA.  103 

The  house  that  envied  not  the  wealth  of  Capua's  marble 

halls, 
Now,  for  the  brightness  of  thy  smile,  must  have  eternal 

gloom,  165 

And  for  the  music  of  thy  voice,  the  silence  of  the  tomb. 
The  time  is  come.     See  how  he  points  his  eager  hand  this 

way  ! 
See  how  his  eyes  gloat  on  thy  grief  like  a  kite's  upon  the 

prey  ! 
With  all  his  wit,  he  little  deems  that,  spurned,  betrayed, 

bereft. 
Thy  father  hath  in  his  despair  one  fearful  refuge  left.        170 
He  little  deems  that  in  this  hand  I  clutch  what  still  can  save 
Thy  gentle  youth  from  taunts  and  blows,  the  portion  of  the 

slave  ; 
Yea,  and  from  nameless  evil,  that  passeth  taunt  and  blow — 
Foul  outrage  which  thou  knowest  not,  which  thou  shalt 

never  know. 
Then  clasp  me  round  the  neck  once  more,  and  give  me 

one  more  kiss  ;  175 

And  now,  mine  own  dear  little  girl,  there  is  no  way  but 

this." 
With  that  he  lifted  high  the  steel  and  smote  her  in  the  side, 
And  in  her  blood  she  sank  to  earth,  and  with  one  sob  she 

died. 

Then,  for  a  little  moment,  all  people  held  their  breath, 
And  through  the  crowded  Forum  was  stillness  as  of  death;  180 
And  in  another  moment  brake  forth  from  one  and  all 
A  cry  as  if  the  Volscians  were  coming  o'er  the  wall. 
Some  with  averted  faces  shrieking  fled  home  amain; 
Some  ran  to  call  a  leech,  and  some  ran  to  lift  the  slain; 
Some  felt  her  lips  and  little  wrist,  if  life  might  there  be 

found ;  185 


104  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

And  some   tore  up   their  garments  fast,   and   strove   to 

stanch  the  wound. 
In  vain  they  ran  and  felt  and  stanched ;  for  never  truer 

blow 
That  good  right  arm  had  dealt  in  fight  against  a  Volscian 

foe. 

When  Appius  Claudius  saw  that  deed,  he  shuddered 

and  sank  down, 
And  hid  his  face  some  little  space  with  the  corner  of  his 

gown,  190 

Till  with  white  lips  and  bloodshot  eyes  Virginius  tottered 

nigh. 
And  stood  before  the  judgment-seat,  and  held  the  knife 

on  high. 
"  O  dwellers  in  the  nether  gloom,  avengers  of  the  slain. 
By  this  dear  blood  I  cry  to  you,  do  right  between   us 

twain  ; 
And  even  as  Appius  Claudius  hath  dealt  by  me  and  mine,  195 
Deal  you  by  Appius  Claudius  and  all  the  Claudian  line  !  " 
So  spake  the  slayer  of  his  child,  and  turned  and  went 

his  way; 
But  first  he  cast  one  haggard  glance  to  where  the  body 

lay, 
And  writhed,  and  groaned  a  fearful  groan,  and  then  with 

steadfast  feet 
Strode  right    across    the  market-place    unto   the  Sacred 

Street.  200 

Then  up  sprang  Appius  Claudius  :  "  Stop  him,  alive  or 

dead ! 
Ten  tliousand  pounds  of  copper  to  the  man  who  brings 

his  head." 
He  looked  upon  his  clients,  but  none  would  work  his  will ; 


VIRGINIA.  105 

He  looked  upon  his  lictors,  but  they  trembled  and  stood 

still. 
And,  as  Virginius  through  the  press  his  way  in  silence 

cleft,  205 

Ever  the  mighty  multitude  fell  back  to  right  and  left. 
And  he  hath  passed  in  safety  unto  his  woful  home, 
And  there  ta'en  horse  to  tell  the  camp  what  deeds  are 

done  in  Rome. 

By  this  the  flood  of  people  was  swollen  from  every  side, 
And  streets  and  porches  round  were  filled  with  that  o'er- 

fiowing  tide  ;  210 

And  close  around  the  body  gathered  a  little  train 
Of  them  that  were  the  nearest  and  dearest  to  the  slain. 
They  brought  a  bier,  and  hung  it  with  many  a  cypress 

crown. 
And  gently  they  uplifted  her,  and  gently  laid  her  down. 
The  face  of  Appius  Claudius  wore  the  Claudian  scowl 

and  sneer,  215 

And  in   the  Claudian   note  he   cried,   "What   doth   this 

rabble  here  ? 
Have  they  no  crafts  to  mind  at  home,  that  hitherward 

they  stray  ? 
Ho !  lictors,  clear  the  market-place,  and  fetch  the  corpse 

away !  " 
The  voice  of  grief  and  fury  till  then  had  not  been  loud  ; 
But  a  deep  sullen  murmur  wandered  among  the  crowd,     220 
Like  the  moaning  noise  that  goes  before  the  whirlwind  on 

the  deep. 
Or  the  growl  of  a  fierce  watch-dog  but  half  aroused  from 

sleep. 
But  when  the  lictors  at  that  word,  tall  yeomen  all  and  strong, 
Each  with  his  axe  and  sheaf  of  twigs,  went  down  into  the 

throng. 


106  LAVS  OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Those  old  men  say  who  saw  that  day  of  sorrow  and  of 

sin  225 

That  in  the  Roman  Forum  was  never  such  a  din. 
The  wailing,  hooting,  cursing,  the  howls  of  grief  and  hate, 
Were  heard  beyond  the  Pincian  Hill,  beyond  the  Latin 

Gate. 
But  close  around  the  body,  where  stood  the  little  train 
Of  them  that  were  the  nearest  and  dearest  to  the  slain,     230 
No  cries  were  there,  but  teeth  set  fast,  low  whispers  and 

black  frowns. 
And  breaking  up  of  benches  and  girding  up  of  gowns. 
'T  was  well  the   lictors   might   not  pierce   to  where    the 

maiden  lay. 
Else  surely  had  they  been  all  twelve  torn  limb  from  limb 

that  day. 
Right  glad  they  were  to  struggle  back,  blood  streaming 

from  their  heads,  235 

With  axes  all  in  splinters  and  raiment  all  in  shreds. 
Then  Appius  Claudius  gnawed  his  lip,  and  the  blood  left 

his  cheek. 
And  thrice  he  beckoned  with  his  hand,  and  thrice  he  strove 

to  speak ; 
And  thrice  the  tossing  Forum  set  up  a  frightful  yell : 
"  See,  see,  thou  dog !   what  thou  hast  done,  and  hide  thy 

shame  in  hell !  240 

Thou  that  wouldst  make  our  maidens  slaves  must  first 

make  slaves  of  men. 
Tribunes  !     Hurrah  for  Tribunes  !     Down  with  the  wicked 

Ten !  " 
And    straightway,    thick    as    hailstones,    came    whizzing 

through  the  air 
Pebbles  and  bricks  and  potsherds  all  round  the  curule 

chair  ; 
And  upon  Appius  Claudius  great  fear  and  trembling  came,  245 


VIRGINIA.  107 

For  never  was  a  Claudius  yet  brave  against  aught  but 

shame. 
Though  the  great  houses  love  us  not,  we  own,  to  do  them 

right, 
That  the  great  houses,  all  save  one,  have  borne  them  well 

in  fight. 
Still  Caius  of  Corioli,  his  triumphs  and  his  wrongs, 
His  vengeance  and  his  mercy,  live  in  our  camp-fire  songs.  250 
Beneath  the  yoke  of  Furius  oft  have  Gaul  and  Tuscan 

bowed ; 
And  Rome  may  bear  the  pride  of  him  of  whom  herself  is 

proud. 
But  evermore  a  Claudius  shrinks  from  a  stricken  field. 
And  changes   color  like   a  maid  at  sight  of  sword  and 

shield. 
The    Claudian    triumphs    all  were  won  within    the    city 

towers ;  255 

The  Claudian  yoke  was  never  pressed  on  any  necks  but 

ours. 
A  Cossus,  like  a  wild  cat,  springs  ever  at  the  face ; 
A  Fabius  rushes  like  a  boar  against  the  shouting  chase ; 
But  the  vile  Claudian  litter,  raging  with  currish  spite, 
Still  yelps  and  snaps  at  those  who  run,  still  runs  from 

those  who  smite.  260 

So  now  't  was  seen  of  Appius ;  when  stones  began  to  fly, 
He  shook  and  crouched,  and  wrung  his  hands,  and  smote 

upon  his  thigh  : 
"  Kind  clients,  honest  lictors,  stand  by  me  in  this  fray  ! 
Must   I   be  torn  in  pieces  ?     Home,  home,  the   nearest 

way  !  " 
While  yet  he  spake,  and  looked  around  with  a  bewildered 

stare,  265 

Four  sturdy  lictors  put  their  necks  beneath  the  curule 

chair  ; 


108  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

And  fourscore  clients  on  the  left  and  fourscore  on  the  right 
Arrayed  themselves  with  swords  and  staves,  and  loins  girt 

up  for  fight. 
But,  though  without  or  staff  or  sword,  so  furious  was  the 

throng 
That  scarce  the  train  with  might  and  main  could  bring 

their  lord  along,  270 

Twelve  times  the  crowd  made  at  him,  five  times  they 

seized  his  gown  ; 
Small  chance  was  his  to  rise  again,  if  once  they  got  him 

down ; 
And  sharper  came  the  pelting,  and  evermore  the  yell  — 
"Tribunes  !  we  will  have  Tribunes!"  —  rose  with  a  louder 

swell ; 
And  the  chair  tossed  as  tosses  a  bark  with  tattered  sail    275 
When  raves  the  Adriatic  beneath  an  eastern  gale. 
When  the  Calabrian  sea-marks  are  lost  in  clouds  of  spume, 
And  the  great  Thunder-Cape  has  donned  his  veil  of  inky 

gloom. 
One  stone  hit  Appius  in  the  mouth,  and  one  beneath  the 

ear, 
And  ere  he   reached  Mount  Palatine  he  swooned  with 

pain  and  fear.  280 

His  cursed  head,  that  he  was  wont  to  hold  so  high  with 

pride. 
Now,  like  a  drunken  man's,  hung  down  and  swayed  from 

side  to  side ; 
And  when  his  stout  retainers  had  brought  him  to  his  door, 
His  face  and  neck  were  all  one  cake  of  filth  and  clotted 

gore. 
As  Appius  Claudius  was  that  day,  so  may  his  grandson  be ! 
God  send  Rome  one  such  other  sight,  and  send  me  there 

to  see  !  286 


THE    PROPHECY    OF    CAPYS. 


It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  remind  any  reader  that, 
according  to  the  popular  tradition,  Romulus,  after  he  had 
slain  his  grand-uncle  Amulius,  and  restored  his  grand- 
father Numitor,  determined  to  quit  Alba,  the  hereditary 
domain  of  the  Sylvian  princes,  and  to  found  a  new  city.  5 
The  Gods,  it  was  added,  vouchsafed  the  clearest  signs  of 
the  favor  with  which  they  regarded  the  enterprise,  and 
of  the  high  destinies  reserved  for  the  young  colony. 

This  event  was  likely  to  be  a  favorite  theme  of  the  old 
Latin  minstrels.  They  would  naturally  attribute  the  proj-  10 
ect  of  Romulus  to  some  divine  intimation  of  the  power 
and  prosperity  which  it  was  decreed  that  his  city  should 
attain.  They  would  probably  introduce  seers  foretelling 
the  victories  of  unborn  Consuls  and  Dictators,  and  the  last 
great  victory  would  generally  occupy  the  most  conspicu-  15 
ous  place  in  the  prediction.  There  is  nothing  strange  in 
the  supposition  that  the  poet  who  was  employed  to  cele- 
brate the  first  great  triumph  of  the  Romans  over  the 
Greeks  might  throw  his  song  of  exultation  into  this  form. 

The  occasion  was  one  likely  to  excite  the  strongest  20 
feelings  of  national  pride.  A  great  outrage  had  been 
followed  by  a  great  retribution.  Seven  years  before  this 
time,  Lucius  Posthumius  Megellus,  who  sprang  from  one 
of  the  noblest  houses  of  Rome,  and  had  been  thrice  Con- 
sul, was  sent  ambassador  to  Tarentum,  with  charge  to  25 
demand  reparation  for  grievous  injuries.  The  Tarentines 
gave  him  audience  in  their  theatre,  where  he  addressed 

109 


110  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

them  in  such  Greek  as  he  could  command,  which,  we  may 
well  believe,  was  not  exactly  such  as  Cineas  would  have 
spoken.  An  exquisite  sense  of  the  ridiculous  belonged 
to  the  Greek  character;  and  closely  connected  with  this 
5  faculty  was  a  strong  propensity  to  flippancy  and  imperti- 
nence. When  Posthumius  placed  an  accent  wrong,  his 
hearers  burst  into  a  laugh.  When  he  remonstrated,  they 
hooted  him  and  called  him  barbarian,  and  at  length  hissed 
him  off  the  stage  as  if  he  had  been  a  bad  actor.     As  the 

lo  grave  Roman  retired,  a  buffoon,  who  from  his  constant 
drunkenness  was  nicknamed  the  Pint-pot,  came  up  with 
gestures  of  the  grossest  indecency,  and  bespattered  the 
senatorial  gown  with  filth.  Posthumius  turned  round  to 
the  multitude,  and  held  up  the  gown,  as  if  appealing  to 

15  the  universal  law  of  nations.  The  sight  only  increased  the 
insolence  of  the  Tarentines.  They  clapped  their  hands, 
and  set  up  a  shout  of  laughter  which  shook  the  theatre. 
"  Men  of  Tarentum,"  said  Posthumius,  "  it  will  take  not  a 
little  blood  to  wash  this  gown."^ 

20  Rome,  in  consequence  of  this  insult,  declared  war 
against  the  Tarentines.  The  Tarentines  sought  for  allies 
beyond  the  Ionian  Sea.  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus,  came  to 
their  help  with  a  large  army ;  and,  for  the  first  time,  the 
two  great  nations  of  antiquity  were  fairly  matched  against 

25  each  other. 

The  fame  of  Greece  in  arms  as  well  as  in  arts  was  then 
at  the  height.  Half  a  century  earlier,  the  career  of 
Alexander  had  excited  the  admiration  and  terror  of  all 
nations    from    the  Ganges    to   the  Pillars    of    Hercules. 

30  Royal   houses,  founded    by    Macedonian    captains,    still 

reigned    at    Antioch    and    Alexandria.     That    barbarian 

warriors,  led  by  barbarian  chiefs,  should  win  a  pitched 

battle  against    Greek   valor   guided    by    Greek    science, 

^  Dion.  Hal.  De  Legationibus. 


THE   PROPHECY  OF  CAPYS.  Ill 

seemed  as  incredible  as  it  would  now  seem  that  the  Bur- 
mese or  the  Siamese  should,  in  the  open  plain,  put  to 
flight  an  equal  number  of  the  best  English  troops.  The 
Tarentines  were  convinced  that  their  countrymen  were 
irresistible  in  war ;  and  this  conviction  had  emboldened  5 
them  to  treat  with  the  grossest  indignity  one  whom  they 
regarded  as  the  representative  of  an  inferior  race.  Of 
the  Greek  generals  then  living,  Pyrrhus  was  indisputably 
the  first.  Among  the  troops  who  were  trained  in  the 
Greek  discipline  his  Epirotes  ranked  high.  His  expedi-  10 
tion  to  Italy  was  a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  He  found  there  a  people  who,  far  inferior  to  the 
Athenians  and  Corinthians  in  the  fine  arts,  in  the  specu- 
lative sciences,  and  in  all  the  refinements  of  life,  were 
the  best  soldiers  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Their  arms,  15 
their  gradations  of  rank,  their  order  of  battle,  their 
method  of  intrenchment,  were  all  of  Latian  origin,  and 
had  all  been  gradually  brought  near  to  perfection,  not  by 
the  study  of  foreign  models,  but  by  the  genius  and  expe- 
rience of  many  generations  of  great  native  commanders.  20 
The  first  words  which  broke  from  the  king,  when  his 
practised  eye  had  surveyed  the  Roman  encampment,  were 
full  of  meaning:  "These  barbarians,"  he  said,  "have 
nothing  barbarous  in  their  military  arrangements."  He 
was  at  first  victorious  ;  for  his  own  talents  were  superior  25 
to  those  of  the  captains  who  were  opposed  to  him ;  and 
the  Romans  were  not  prepared  for  the  onset  of  the  ele- 
phants of  the  East,  which  were  then  for  the  first  time 
seen  in  Italy  —  moving  mountains,  with  long  snakes  for 
hands. ^  But  the  victories  of  the  Epirotes  were  fiercely  30 
disputed,  dearly  purchased,  and  altogether  unprofitable. 
At  length  Manius  Curius  Dentatus,  who  had  in  his  first 

1  Anguimamts  is  the  old  Latin  epithet  for  an  elephant.     Lucre- 
tius, ii.  538,  V.  1302. 


112  LAy^S   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Consulship  won  two  triumphs,  was  again  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  Roman  Commonwealth,  and  sent  to  encounter 
the  invaders.  A  great  battle  was  fought  near  Beneventum. 
Pyrrhus  was  completely  defeated.  He  repassed  the  sea ; 
5  and  the  world  learned  with  amazement  that  a  people  had 
been  discovered  who,  in  fair  fighting,  were  superior  to 
the  best  troops  that  had  been  drilled  on  the  system  of 
Parmenio  and  Antigonus. 

The  conquerors  had  a  good  right  to  exult  in  their  suc- 

lo  cess ;  for  their  glory  was  all  their  own.  They  had  not 
learned  from  their  enemy  how  to  conquer  him.  It  was 
with  their  own  national  arms,  and  in  their  own  national 
battle-array,  that  they  had  overcome  weapons  and  tactics 
long  believed  to  be  invincible.     The  pilum  and  the  broad- 

15  sword  had  vanquished  the  Macedonian  spear.  The 
legion  had  broken  the  Macedonian  phalanx.  Even  the 
elephants,  when  the  surprise  produced  by  their  first 
appearance  was  over,  could  cause  no  disorder  in  the 
steady  yet  flexible  battalions  of  Rome. 

20  It  is  said  by  Florus,  and  may  easily  be  believed,  that 
the  triumph  far  surpassed  in  magnificence  any  that  Rome 
had  previously  seen.  The  only  spoils  which  Papirius 
Cursor  and  Fabius  Maximus  could  exhibit  were  flocks 
and  herds,  wagons  of  rude  structure,  and  heaps  of  spears 

25  and  helmets.  But  now,  for  the  first  time,  the  riches  of 
Asia  and  the  arts  of  Greece  adorned  a  Roman  pageant. 
Plate,  fine  stuffs,  costly  furniture,  rare  animals,  exquisite 
paintings  and  sculptures,  formed  part  of  the  procession. 
At  the  banquet  would  be  assembled  a  crowd  of  warriors 

30  and  statesmen,  among  whom  Manius  Curius  Dentatus 
would  take  the  highest  room.  Caius  Fabricius  Luscinus, 
then,  after  two  Consulships  and  two  triumphs,  Censor 
of  the  Commonwealth,  would  doubtless  occupy  a  place 
of  honor  at  the  board.     In   situations  less  conspicuous 


THE   PROPHECY   OF   CAP  VS.  113 

probably  lay  some  of  those  who  were,  a  few  years  later, 
the  terror  of  Carthage,  —  Caius  Duilius,  the  founder  of  the 
maritime  greatness  of  his  country ;  Marcus  Atilius  Regu- 
lus,  who  owed  to  defeat  a  renown  far  higher  than  that 
which  he  had  derived  from  his  victories  ;  and  Caius  Luta-  5 
tius  Catulus,  who,  while  suffering  from  a  grievous  wound, 
fought  the  great  battle  of  the  Agates,  and  brought  the 
First  Punic  War  to  a  triumphant  close.  It  is  impossible 
to  recount  the  names  of  these  eminent  citizens  without 
reflecting  that  they  were  all,  without  exception.  Plebeians,  lo 
and  would,  but  for  the  ever-memorable  struggle  main- 
tained by  Caius  Licinius  and  Lucius  Sextius,  have  been 
doomed  to  hide  in  obscurity,  or  to  waste  in  civil  broils 
the  capacity  and  energy  which  prevailed  against  Pyrrhus 
and  Hamilcar.  15 

On  such  a  day  we  may  suppose  that  the  patriotic  en- 
thusiasm of  a  Latin  poet  would  vent  itself  in  reiterated 
shouts  of  /o  triumphe.,  such  as  were  uttered  by  Horace  on 
a  far  less  exciting  occasion,  and  in  boasts  resembling 
those  which  Virgil  put  into  the  mouth  of  Anchises.  The  zo 
superiority  of  some  foreign  nations,  and  especially  of  the 
Greeks,  in  the  lazy  arts  of  peace  would  be  admitted  with 
disdainful  candor ;  but  pre-eminence  in  all  the  qualities 
which  fit  a  people  to  subdue  and  govern  mankind  would 
be  claimed  for  the  Romans.  25 

The  following  lay  belongs  to  the  latest  age  of  Latin 
ballad-poetry.  Navius  and  Livius  Andronicus  were 
probably  among  the  children  whose  mothers  held  them 
up  to  see  the  chariot  of  Curius  go  by.  The  minstrel  who 
sang  on  that  day  might  possibly  have  lived  to  read  the  30 
first  hexameters  of  Ennius,  and  to  see  the  first  comedies 
of  Plautus.  His  poem,  as  might  be  expected,  shows  a 
much  wider  acquaintance  with  the  geography,  manners, 
and  productions  of  remote  nations  than  would  have  been 


114  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

found  in  compositions  of  the  age  of  Camillus.  But  he 
troubles  himself  little  about  dates,  and  having  heard  trav- 
ellers talk  with  admiration  of  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes, 
and  of  the  structures  and  gardens  with  which  the  Mace- 
donian kings  of  Syria  had  embellished  their  residence  on 
the  banks  of  the  Orontes,  he  has  never  thought  of  inquir- 
ing whether  these  things  existed  in  the  age  of  Romulus. 


THE   PROPHECY    OF    CAPYS. 

A  LAY  SUNG  AT  THE  BANQUET  IN  THE  CAPITOL,  ON  THE  DAY 
WHEREON  MANIUS  CURIUS  DENTATUS,  A  SECOND  TIME 
CONSUL,  TRIUMPHED  OVER  KING  PYRRHUS  AND  THE 
TARENTINES,    IN    THE   YEAR    OF    THE    CITY    CCCCLXXIX. 


Now  slain  is  King  Amulius 

Of  the  great  Sylvian  line, 
Who  reigned  in  Alba  Longa 

On  the  throne  of  Aventine. 
Slain  is  the  Pontiff  Camers, 

Who  spake  the  words  of  doom 
"  The  children  to  the  Tiber, 

The  mother  to  the  tomb." 


In  Alba's  lake  no  fisher 
His  net  to-day  is  flinging ; 

On  the  dark  rind  of  Alba's  oaks 
To-day  no  axe  is  ringing ; 


THE   PROPHECY  OE  CAP  VS.  115 

The  yoke  hangs  o'er  the  manger, 

The  scythe  hes  in  the  hay  ; 
Through  all  the  Alban  villages  15 

No  work  is  done  to-day. 


And  every  Alban  burgher 

Hath  donned  his  whitest  gown  ; 
And  every  head  in  Alba 

Weareth  a  poplar  crown  ;  20 

And  every  Alban  door-post 

With  boughs  and  flowers  is  gay ; 
For  to-day  the  dead  are  living, 

The  lost  are  found  to-day. 

IV. 

They  were  doomed  by  a  bloody  king,  25 

They  were  doomed  by  a  lying  priest ; 
They  were  cast  on  the  raging  flood, 

They  were  tracked  by  the  raging  beast. 
Raging  beast  and  raging  flood 

Alike  have  spared  the  prey ;  3° 

And  to-day  the  dead  are  living, 

The  lost  are  found  to-day. 

V. 

The  troubled  river  knew  them, 

And  smoothed  his  yellow  foam, 
And  gently  rocked  the  cradle  35 

That  bore  the  fate  of  Rome. 
The  ravening  she-wolf  knew  them. 

And  licked  them  o'er  and  o'er. 
And  gave  them  of  her  own  fierce  milk, 

Rich  with  raw  flesh  and  gore.  4° 


116  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

Twenty  winters,  twenty  springs, 
Since  then  have  rolled  away ; 

And  to-day  the  dead  are  living. 
The  lost  are  found  to-day. 


Blithe  it  was  to  see  the  twins,  45 

Right  goodly  youths  and  tall, 
Marching  from  Alba  Longa 

To  their  old  grandsire's  hall. 
Along  their  path  fresh  garlands 

Are  hung  from  tree  to  tree  ;  5° 

Before  them  stride  the  pipers,  ♦ 

Piping  a  note  of  glee. 

VII. 

On  the  right  goes  Romulus, 

With  arms  to  the  elbows  red, 
And  in  his  hand  a  broadsword,  SS 

And  on  the  blade  a  head  — 
A  head  in  an  iron  helmet, 

With  horse-hair  hanging  down, 
A  shaggy  head,  a  swarthy  head, 

Fixed  in  a  ghastly  frown  —  6o 

The  head  of  King  Amulius 

Of  the  great  Sylvian  line. 
Who  reigned  in  Alba  Longa 

On  the  throne  of  Aventine. 

VIII. 

On  the  left  side  goes  Remus,  65 

With  wrists  and  fingers  red. 
And  in  his  hand  a  boar-spear, 

And  on  the  point  a  head  — 


THE   PROPHECY  OF  CAP  VS.  117 

A  wrinkled  head  and  aged, 

With  silver  beard  and  hair,  70 

And  holy  fillets  round  it 

Such  as  the  pontiffs  wear  — 
The  head  of  ancient  Gamers, 

Who  spake  the  words  of  doom  : 
"  The  children  to  the  Tiber,  75 

The  mother  to  the  tomb." 

IX. 

Two  and  two  behind  the  twins 

Their  trusty  comrades  go. 
Four  and  forty  valiant  men, 

With  club  and  axe  and  bow.  80 

On  each  side  every  hamlet 

Pours  forth  its  joyous  crowd, 
Shouting  lads  and  baying  dogs 

And  children  laughing  loud, 
And  old  men  weeping  fondly  85 

As  Rhea's  boys  go  by. 
And  maids  who  shriek  to  see  the  heads, 

Yet,  shrieking,  press  more  nigh. 


So  they  marched  along  the  lake  ; 

They  marched  by  fold  and  stall,  9° 

By  corn-field  and  by  vineyard, 

Unto  the  old  man's  hall. 

XI. 

In  the  hall-gate  sat  Capys, 

Capys,  the  sightless  seer ; 
From  head  to  foot  he  trembled  95 

As  Romulus  drew  near. 


118  LAYS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

And  up  stood  stiff  his  thin  white  hair, 

And  his  blind  eyes  flashed  fire  : 
"  Hail !  foster  child  of  the  wondrous  nurse  ! 

Hail !  son  of  the  wondrous  sire  !  loo 

XII. 

"  But  thou  —  what  dost  thou  here 

In  the  old  man's  peaceful  hall  ? 
What  doth  the  eagle  in  the  coop, 

The  bison  in  the  stall  ? 
Our  corn  fills  many  a  garner,  105 

Our  vines  clasp  many  a  tree. 
Our  flocks  are  white  on  many  a  hill, 

But  these  are  not  for  thee. 

XIII. 

"  For  thee  no  treasure  ripens 

In  the  Tartessian  mine  ;  "o 

For  thee  no  ship  brings  precious  bales 

Across  the  Libyan  brine  ; 
Thou  shalt  not  drink  from  amber. 

Thou  shalt  not  rest  on  down  ; 
Arabia  shall  not  steep  thy  locks,  "5 

Nor  Sidon  tinge  thy  gown. 

XIV. 

"  Leave  gold  and  myrrh  and  jewels. 

Rich  table  and  soft  bed. 
To  them  who  of  man's  seed  are  born. 

Whom  woman's  milk  hath  fed.  120 

Thou  wast  not  made  for  lucre. 

For  pleasure,  nor  for  rest ; 
Thou,  that  art  sprung  from  the  War-god's  loins, 

And  hast  tugged  at  the  she-wolf's  breast. 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  CAP  VS.  119 

XV. 

"From  sunrise  unto  sunset  125 

All  earth  shall  hear  thy  fame  ; 
A  glorious  city  thou  shalt  build, 

And  name  it  by  thy  name  ; 
And  there,  unquenched  through  ages, 

Like  Vesta's  sacred  fire,  13° 

Shall  live  the  spirit  of  thy  nurse. 

The  spirit  of  thy  sire. 

XVI. 

"  The  ox  toils  through  the  furrow, 

Obedient  to  the  goad  ; 
The  patient  ass  up  flinty  paths  '35 

Plods  with  his  weary  load  ; 
With  whine  and  bound  the  spaniel 

His  master's  whistle  hears ; 
And  the  sheep  yields  her  patiently 

To  the  loud  clashing  shears.  Mo 

XVII. 

"  But  thy  nurse  will  hear  no  master, 

Thy  nurse  will  bear  no  load ; 
And  woe  to  them  that  shear  her, 

And  woe  to  them  that  goad  ! 
When  all  the  pack,  loud  baying,  i4S 

Her  bloody  lair  surrounds, 
She  dies  in  silence,  biting  hard. 

Amidst  the  dying  hounds. 

XVIII. 

"  Pomona  loves  the  orchard, 

And  Liber  loves  the  vine,  15° 


120  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

And  Pales  loves  the  straw-built  shed 

Warm  with  the  breath  of  kine ; 
And  Venus  loves  the  whispers 

Of  plighted  youth  and  maid, 
In  April's  ivory  moonlight  155 

Beneath  the  chestnut  shade. 

XIX. 

"  But  thy  father  loves  the  clashing 

Of  broadsword  and  of  shield  ; 
He  loves  to  drink  the  steam  that  reeks 

From  the  fresh  battlefield  ;  160 

He  smiles  a  smile  more  dreadful 

Than  his  own  dreadful  frown, 
When  he  sees  the  thick  black  cloud  of  smoke 

Go  up  from  the  conquered  town. 

XX. 

"  And  such  as  is  the  War-god,  165 

The  author  of  thy  line, 
And  such  as  she  who  suckled  thee, 

Even  such  be  thou  and  thine. 
Leave  to  the  soft  Campanian 

His  baths  and  his  perfumes;  170 

Leave  to  the  sordid  race  of  Tyre 

Their  dyeing-vats  and  looms; 
Leave  to  the  sons  of  Carthage 

The  rudder  and  the  oar; 
Leave  to  the  Greek  his  marble  Nymphs  175 

And  scrolls  of  wordy  lore. 

XXI. 

"Thine,  Roman,  is  the  pilum; 
Roman,  the  sword  is  thine, 


THE   PROPHECY   OF  CAPYS.  121 

The  even  trench,  the  bristling  mound, 

The  legion's  ordered  line;  i8o 

And  thine  the  wheels  of  triumph. 

Which  with  their  laurelled  train 
Move  slowly  up  the  shouting  streets 

To  Jove's  eternal  fane. 

XXII. 

"Beneath  thy  yoke  the  Volscian  185 

Shall  vail  his  lofty  brow; 
Soft  Capua's  curled  revellers 

Before  thy  chairs  shall  bow ; 
The  Lucumoes  of  Arnus 

Shall  quake  thy  rods  to  see  ;  19° 

And  the  proud  Samnite's  heart  of  steel 

Shall  yield  to  only  thee, 

XXIII. 

"  The  Gaul  shall  come  against  thee 

From  the  land  of  snow  and  night ; 
Thou  shalt  give  his  fair-haired  armies  195 

To  the  raven  and  the  kite. 

XXIV. 

"  The  Greek  shall  come  against  thee. 

The  conqueror  of  the  East. 
Beside  him  stalks  to  battle 

The  huge  earth-shaking  beast  —  200 

The  beast  on  whom  the  castle 

With  all  its  guards  doth  stand, 
The  beast  who  hath  between  his  eyes 

The  serpent  for  a  hand. 
First  march  the  bold  Epirotes,  205 

Wedged  close  with  shield  and  spear. 


122  LAVS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

And  the  ranks  of  false  Tarentum 
Are  glittering  in  the  rear. 

XXV. 

"  The  ranks  of  false  Tarentum 

Like  hunted  sheep  shall  fly;  210 

In  vain  the  bold  Epirotes 

Shall  round  their  standards  die  ; 
And  Apennine's  gray  vultures 

Shall  have  a  noble  feast 
On  the  fat  and  the  eyes  215 

Of  the  huge  earth-shaking  beast. 

XXVI, 

"  Hurrah  for  the  good  weapons 

That  keep  the  War-god's  land  ! 
Hurrah  for  Rome's  stout  pilum 

In  a  stout  Roman  hand  !  220 

Hurrah  for  Rome's  short  broadsword, 

That  through  the  thick  array 
Of  levelled  spears  and  serried  shields 

Hews  deep  its  gory  way  ! 

XXVII. 

"  Hurrah  for  the  great  triumph  225 

That  stretches  many  a  mile  ! 
Hurrah  for  the  wan  captives 

That  pass  in  endless  file  ! 
Ho  !  bold  Epirotes,  whither 

Hath  the  Red  King  ta'en  flight  ?  230 

Ho  !  dogs  of  false  Tarentum, 

Is  not  the  gown  washed  white  ? 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  CAP  VS.  123 


XXVIII. 

"  Hurrah  for  the  great  triumph 

That  stretches  many  a  mile  ! 
Hurrah  for  the  rich  dye  of  Tyre,  235 

And  the  fine  web  of  Nile, 
The  helmets  gay  with  plumage 

Torn  from  the  pheasant's  wrings, 
The  belts  set  thick  with  starry  gems 

That  shone  on  Indian  kings,  240 

The  urns  of  massy  silver, 

The  goblets  rough  with  gold, 
The  many-colored  tablets  bright 

With  loves  and  wars  of  old, 
The  stone  that  breathes  and  struggles,  245 

The  brass  that  seems  to  speak !  — 
Such  cunning  they  who  dwell  on  high 

Have  given  unto  the  Greek. 

XXIX, 

"  Hurrah  for  Manius  Curius, 

The  bravest  son  of  Rome,  250 

Thrice  in  utmost  need  sent  forth. 

Thrice  drawn  in  triumph  home ! 
Weave,  weave,  for  Manius  Curius 

The  third  embroidered  gown; 
Make  ready  the  third  lofty  car,  255 

And  twine  the  third  green  crown  ; 
And  yoke  the  steeds  of  Rosea 

With  necks  like  a  bended  bow, 
And  deck  the  bull,  Mevania's  bull. 

The  bull  as  white  as  snow,  260 


124  LA  YS   OF  ANCIENT  ROME. 

XXX. 

"  Blest  and  thrice  blest  the  Roman 

Who  sees  Rome's  brightest  day, 
Who  sees  that  long  victorious  pomp 

Wind  down  the  Sacred  Way, 
And  through  the  bellowing  Forum,  265 

And  round  the  Suppliant's  Grove, 
Up  to  the  everlasting  gates 

Of  Capitolian  Jove. 

XXXI. 

"  Then  where  o'er  two  bright  havens 

The  towers  of  Corinth  frown ;  270 

Where  the  gigantic  King  of  Day 

On  his  own  Rhodes  looks  down  ; 
Where  soft  Orontes  murmurs 

Beneath  the  laurel  shades ; 
Where  Nile  reflects  the  endless  length  275 

Of  dark-red  colonnades  ; 
Where  in  the  still  deep  water. 

Sheltered  from  waves  and  blasts, 
Bristles  the  dusky  forest 

Of  Byrsa's  thousand  masts;  280 

Where  fur-clad  hunters  wander 

Amidst  the  northern  ice  ; 
Where  through  the  sand  of  morning-land 

The  camel  bears  the  spice ; 
Where  Atlas  flings  his  shadow  285 

Far  o'er  the  western  foam, 
Shall  be  great  fear  on  all  who  hear 

The  mighty  name  of  Rome." 


The  Bronze  Wolf  of  the  Capitol. 


NOTES 


N.B.    Cf.  =  compare,     f/or.  =  Uontius.    .5.  Z,. /?.  =  The  Battle  of  the  Lake  Regillus. 
l^ir.  =  Virginia.     F.  C.  =  The  Prophecy  of  Capys. 


HORATIUS. 


The  year  of  the  city  CCCLX  :  b.c.  394. 

1.  Lars:  an  honorary  title  among  the  Etru.scans,  like  English 
'Lord.'  —  Clusium :  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  twelve  cities  of 
the  Etruscan  Confederation. 

2.  Nine  Gods :  the  nine  Great  Gods,  so  called,  of  the  Etruscans, 
who  alone  had  the  power  of  hurling  the  thunderbolt. 

3.  house  of  Tarquin :  read  in  a  History  of  Rome  an  account  of 
the  Tarquins  and  of  the  expulsion  of  the  family  from  Rome. 

4.  suffer  wrong  :  remain  in  exile,  —  which  was  a  grievous  wrong  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Tarquins  and  their  friends. 

14.  Etruscan  (or  Tuscan) :  the  adjective  (here  used  as  a  noun) 
applied  to  the  inhabitants  of  Etruria  (or  Tuscia).     See  map. 

19.  amain:  without  cessation.  Cf.  Shakespeare,  j  Henry  VI, 
II.  I,  "to  London  will  we  march  amain."  Other  meanings  of  this  word 
will  occur. 

25.    Apennine :  the  Romans  used  the  singular;  we  use  the  plural. 

125 


126  NOTES. 

34.  Pisae :  on  the  site  of  the  modern  Pisa,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Arnus. 

36.  Massilia :  modern  Marseilles,  early  settled  by  Greeks,  and 
always  an  important  commercial  city.  —  triremes  :  war-ships  with  three 
banks  of  oars. 

37.  fair-haired  slaves :  referring  to  Gauls  who  had  been  captured 
for  sale  in  the  Roman  market.  The  Gauls  are  frequently  spoken  of  as 
having  light-colored  hair,  in  marked  contrast  with  the  black  hair  of  the 
southern  nations.     Cf.  P.  C.  1 93-1 95- 

41.    diadem  of  towers:   Cortona  was  built  on  a  very  high  hill. 

45.    Ciminian  hill :  near  Lake  Ciminus. 

47.  to  the  herdsman  dear :  because  its  waters  were  drunk  by  the 
"milk-white  steers"  (cf.  1.  55  and  P.  C.  259,  260),  a  famous  breed  of 
oxen  much  in  demand  as  victims  for  sacrifice  on  great  occasions. 

49.  mere :  this  word  is  now  rarely  used  except  in  poetry.  It  sur- 
vives in  the  names  of  some  English  lakes,  like  Windemere. 

58-65.  old  men  .  .  .  boys  .  .  .  girls:  of  course,  because  the  young 
men  were  in  the  army. 

61.  plunge  the  struggling  sheep:  sheep  are  "plunged"  to  wash 
the  wool  before  shearing. 

62.  vats  of  Luna,  etc. :  in  allusion  to  the  custom  of  "  treading " 
the  grapes. 

63.  must :  the  grape  juice  before  fermenting. 

66.  thirty  chosen  prophets :  augurs,  who  interpreted  the  will  of  the 
gods.     Cf.  note  on  1.  388. 

71.  verses  :  prophecies  preserved  in  verse. 

72.  traced  from  the  right:  i.e.  written  from  right  to  left,  like 
Hebrew,  Persian,  and  Arabic. 

80.  Nurscia's  altars :  Nurtia,  or  Nortia,  was  a  goddess  of  the  Vol- 
scinians,  probably  the  same  as  the  Roman  Fortuna. 

81.  golden  shields:  the  twelve  golden  shields  of  Rome.  In  the 
reign  of  Numa  a  golden  shield  (of  Mars)  was  said  to  have  fallen  from 
heaven,  "  and  on  its  continued  preservation  the  continued  prosperity  of 
Rome  was  declared  to  depend."  To  prevent  this  from  being  stolen, 
eleven  others  were  made  exactly  like  it,  so  that  no  one  might  know 
which  was  the  true  one,  and  twelve  priests  were  appointed  to  take 
charge  of  them.     Cf.  B.  L.  R.  624. 

96.  Tusculan :  from  Tusculum,  a  town  of  Latium.  —  Mamilius  : 
son-in-law  of  Tarquin  the  Proud. 

98.  yellow  :  a  very  common  epithet  of  the  Tiber,  probably  from  the 
color  of  its  sands. 


HORA  TIUS.  Ill 

io6.  folk :  most  of  the  editions  have  "  folks."  Cf.  "  folk  "  in  Vir. 
62. 

115.  skins  of  wine:  wine  was  transported  from  place  to  place  in 
bottles  made  of  leather. 

117.  kine  :  old  plural  of  'cow,'  now  seldom  used. 

122.  rock  Tarpeian :  a  precipitous  cliff  on  the  Capitoline,  over- 
looking the  Tiber,  from  which  in  later  times  traitors  were  hurled. 

126.  Fathers:  senators.  The  expression  "City  Fathers"  is  not 
uncommon  now. 

132.    Nor  .  .  .  nor  .  .  .  nor :  neither  .  .  .  nor  .  .  .  nor. 

134.  Verbenna :  "The  name  is  one  of  Macaulay's  own  invention; 
it  is  not  mentioned  by  any  Roman  writer"  [Rolfe].^ — Ostia :  the  sea- 
port of  Rome,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber. 

136.  Astur  :  "  another  name  of  Macaulay's  invention.  There  is  a 
Latin  word  astjir,  meaning  a  hawk"  [Rolfe].  —  Janiculum:  a  high  hill 
west  of  the  Tiber,  commanding  the  city;  not  one  of  the  "seven  hills." 

138.    I  wis  :  originally ji/w/j-,  an  adverb  meaning 'certainly.' 

142.  Consul:  chief  magistrate  of  Rome.  There  were  two  consuls  ; 
see  note  on  B.  L.  J?.  82. 

144.  gowns  :  the  ^oga,  called  '  gown '  in  the  Lays,  was  the  outer  gar- 
ment of  a  Roman  citizen.  It  was  a  loose,  flowing  garment  and  needed 
"girding  up"  when  action  was  demanded  of  the  wearer. 

146.    standing:  explained  by  11.  148,  149. 

151.    straight:  for  '  straightway.' 

156.  Macaulay  has  been  criticised  for  using  "  Sir."  Does  the  word 
seem  out  of  place  here? 

177.  twelve  fair  cities:  i.e.  of  the  Etruscan  Confederation;  see 
note  on  1.  i. 

180.  Umbrian  :  a  people  of  eastern  and  central  Italy. 

181.  Gaul :  here  refers  to  the  people  of  northern  Italy,  or  Cisalpine 
Gaul. 

184.  port  and  vest :  carriage  (or  bearing)  and  dress.  The  word 
'vest,'  now  restricted  in  meaning,  is  here  used  as  a  general  word  for 
'clothing'  or  'dress.' 

185.  Lucumo  :  the  title  of  an  Etruscan  prince. 

188.  fourfold:  having  four  layers  of  hide  or  metal. 

189.  brand :  why  should  a  sword  be  called  (metaphorically)  a 
brand  ? 

192.    Thrasymene  :  Lake  Thrasymenus  (better  spelled  Trasymenus). 

194.    war  :   warlike  array. 

199.    false  Sextus :   Sextus  Tarquinius,  son  of  Tarquin  the  Proud. 


128  NOTES. 

200.    deed  of  shame  :  the  rape  of  Lucretia. 

217.  Horatius :  surnamed  Codes  (the  one-eyed),  was  of  patrician 
family,  representing  the  Luceres,  one  of  the  original  three  tribes,  the 
other  two  being  the  Ramnian  (Ramnes)  and  the  Titian  (Tities).  See 
the  author's  introduction,  p.  29,  1.  26. 

229.  holy  maidens:  the  Vestal  Virgins,  whose  chief  duty  it  was  to 
keep  burning  the  sacred  fire  on  the  altar  of  Vesta.  They  were  six  in 
number,  chosen  from  the  highest  families,  and  held  in  the  highest 
esteem. 

237.    strait:  not  'straight ' ;  cf.  1.  440. 

242.   Ramnian  .  .  .  Titian :  see  note  on  1.  217. 

253.  For  Romans  ...  in  the  brave  days  of  old,  etc.:  men  in  all 
ages  are  wont  to  magnify  the  past  at  the  expense  of  the  present. 

262.  spoils  were  fairly  sold  :  after  the  capture  of  the  city  of  Veii 
by  the  Romans  under  Camillus,  large  quantities  of  the  booty  were  dis- 
tributed among  the  citizens.  Later  Camillus  was  accused  of  making 
an  unfair  distribution,  and  in  consequence  of  the  accusation  went  into 
exile. 

267.  Tribunes :  officers  of  the  city,  who  had  certain  extraordinary 
powers.  They  were  originally  appointed  to  protect  the  interests  of  the 
plebeians,  and  were  themselves  plebeians.  —  beard  the  high  :  cf.  Scott's 
Marmion, 

"  And  dar'st  thou  then 
To  beard  the  Hon  in  his  den, 
The  Douglas  in  his  hall  ?  " 

274.    harness :  armor,  an  old  use  of  the  word ;  cf.  "At  least  we  '11 
die  with  harness  on  our  back,"  Shakespeare,  Macbeth,  V.  5. 
277.    Commons:  the  common  people,  plebeians. 
304.    Ilva  :  the  modern  Elba,  still  celebrated  for  its  iron  mines. 

309.  Nequinum  :  afterwards  Narnia. 

310.  pale  waves :  the  Nar  was  noted  for  its  sulphurous  waters  and 
white  color. 

314.   clove :  cf.  cleft,  Vir.  205. 

335.    Ostia  :  see  note  on  1.  134. 

337.  Campania  :  a  seacoast  country,  southeast  of  Latium.  —  hinds  : 
peasants,  farm  laborers;  the  word  has  no  connection  with  'hind':= 
'  deer.'  Jack  Cade's  army  is  described  in  Shakespeare,  2  Henry  VI, 
IV.  4,  as  "a  ragged  multitude  of  hinds  and  peasants." 

354.  brand:  see  note  on  1.  189. 

355.  none  but  he  :  what  part  of  speech  is  '  but '  here  ? 


HO  RATI  us.  129 

360.  she-wolf's  litter:  refers  to  the  suckling  of  Romulus  and 
Remus  by  a  she-wolf.     Cf.  P.  C.  37-40. 

384.    Mount  Alvernus  :  a  mountain  in  northern  Etruria. 

388.  augurs :  official  soothsayers,  who  had  charge  of  the  public 
auspices.  The  effects  of  lightning  were  carefully  watched  and  inter- 
preted by  the  augurs. 

392.    amain:  with  all  his  might.     Cf.  note  on  1.  19. 

417.    Was  none:   note  the  omission  of  the  expletive  'there.' 

440.   narrow  way:  cf.  "strait  path,"  1.  237. 

446.  tide :  always  note  figurative  uses  of  words.  What  would  be 
the  usual  prose  word  for  '  tide  ' .'' 

465.  As  to  the  highest  turret-tops,  etc. :  how  can  such  an  extrava- 
gant statement  be  justified? 

470.   tossed  his  tawny  mane :  explain  the  figure. 

483.  grace :  mercy.  Cf.  Shakespeare,  Hamlet,  I.  5,  "  So  grace  and 
mercy  at  your  most  need  help  you." 

488.  Palatinus :  the  hill  on  which  the  patricians  resided,  where  the 
original  settlement  was.  When  Macaulay  was  in  Rome  in  1838,  he 
wrote  in  his  journal :  "  I  then  went  towards  the  river,  to  the  spot  where 
the  old  Pons  Sublicius  stood,  and  looked  about  to  see  how  my  Hora- 
tius  agreed  with  the  topography.  Pretty  well :  but  his  house  must  be 
on  Mount  Palatinus  ;  for  he  would  never  see  Mount  Coelius  from  the 
spot  where  he  fought."     S^Life  and  Letters.,  vol.  ii,  p.  29.] 

492.  father  Tiber  :  i.e.  the  river-god.  It  should  be  remembered  that 
the  early  Romans  looked  upon  all  objects  and  phenomena  of  nature  as 
possessed  each  by  its  own  invisible  spirit  or  deity. 

525.    Bare  bravely  up  his  chin  :  in  a  footnote  to  this  line  Macaulay 

quotes  from  Scott 

Our  ladye  bare  upp  her  chinne. 

Ballad  of  Childe  Waters. 
Never  heavier  man  and  horse 
Stemmed  a  midnight  torrent's  force  ; 


Yet,  through  good  heart  and  our  Lady's  grace, 
At  length  he  gained  the  landing  place. 

Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  I. 

542.  corn-land  ...  of  public  right:  lands  belonging  to  the  state 
consisted  mainly  of  territory  taken  in  war.  The  various  agrarian  huvs 
that  were  passed  from  time  to  time  were  concerned  with  the  disposition 
of  the  public  lands.     Cf.  1.  261. 

545.    Could  plough:  i.e.  'could  plough  around.' 


130  NOTES. 

550.  Comitium :  an  open  space  adjoining  the  forum,  in  which  cer- 
tain assemblies  were  held. 

561.  the  Volscian  :  the  Volscians  were  a  tribe  of  Latium,  among  the 
most  formidable  of  Rome's  enemies  in  the  early  period  of  the  republic. 
Coriolanus  is  the  hero  of  the  Volscian  wars. 

562.  Juno :  the  protectress  of  women  and  goddess  of  childbirth. 
Cf.  Shakespeare,  As  You  Like  It,  V.  4,  "Wedding  is  great  Juno's 
crown." 

572.    Algidus  :  a  mountain  of  Latium,  one  of  the  Alban  range. 

582,  584.  goodman  .  .  .  goodwife :  master  and  mistress  of  the 
house.  In  Carlyle's  letters  to  his  sister  he  often  speaks  of  her  husband 
as  "your  Goodman." 


THE    BATTLE    OF   THE    LAKE    REGILLUS. 

The  year  of  the  city  CCCCLI :  b.c.  303. 

2.  lictors  :  attendants  upon  the  higher  magistrates  —  the  consul  had 
twelve  —  who  carried  as  symbols  of  power  bundles  of  rods  c'sWtA  fasces, 
to  which  axes  were  added.  But  the  axe  was  not  used  inside  the  city 
after  the  downfall  of  the  kings.     Cf.  Vir.  224. 

3.  Knights :  members  of  the  equestrian  order,  wealthy  citizens 
who,  at  this  period  of  Roman  history,  served  in  the  cavalry  with  a 
horse  provided  by  the  state. 

7.  Castor :  i.e.  the  temple  of  Castor  and  Pollux  (the  "  Great  Twin 
Brethren"),  erected  in  commemoration  of  the  events  recorded  in  this 
Lay. — Forum:  an  open  place  between  the  Capitoline  and  Palatine 
hills,   where    business  was  transacted,  meetings  held,  etc. 

8.  Mars  :  i.e.  the  temple  of  Mars,  the  war-god. 

13.  Yellow  River:  cf.  Hor.  98,  466,  470. 

14.  Sacred  Hill:  mons  sacer,  a  hill  three  miles  from  the  city,  near 
the  Anio,  to  which  the  plebeians  had  twice  seceded  when  seeking 
redress  of  grievances. 

15.  Ides  of  Quintilis  :  the  fifteenth  day  of  July.  July  was  the  fifth 
month,  March  being  the  first.  The  name  July  was  given  to  it  by  Julius 
Caesar,  when  he  reformed  the  calendar. 

17.  Martian  Kalends  :  the  first  day  of  March  (the  month  of  Mars), 
when  was  celebrated  the  festival  called  Matronalia  in  memory  of  the 
peace  made  by  the  Sabine  women  between  the  Romans  and  the  Sabines 
in  the  time  of  Romulus. 


THE  BATTLE    OF   THE  LAKE   REGILLUS.  131 

i8.  December's  Nones :  the  fifth  of  December,  when  were  cele- 
brated the  Faunalia,  or  feast  of  Faunus,  the  protecting  deity  of  agricul- 
ture and  of  shepherds,  also  a  giver  of  oracles. 

15-18.  Kalends,  Nones,  Ides  :  the  Romans  reckoned  the  days  of  the 
month  backwards  from  these  three  points,  the  Kalends  being  the  first, 
the  Nones  the  fifth,  and  the  Ides  the  thirteenth,  except  that  in  March, 
May,  July,  and  October  the  Nones  came  on  the  seventh  and  the  Ides 
on  the  fifteenth. 

20.  whitest :  most  propitious ;  in  allusion  to  the  custom  of  mark- 
ing days  of  good  omen  in  the  calendar  with  white,  as  unlucky  days 
were  marked  with  black.     Cf.  11.  156,  78c. 

24.  from  the  east :  the  home  of  the  Twin  Brethren  may  be 
regarded  as  Sparta,  in  southern  Greece,  where  they  first  received  divine 
honors. 

25.  Parthenius  :  a  mountain  in  southern  Greece. 

27.    Cirrha  :  a  town  in  northern  Greece.  —  Adria  :  the  Adriatic  sea. 

31.    Lacedaemon  :  another  name  for  Sparta. 

33.  Lake  Regillus :  regarding  the  locality  of  this  lake,  see  the 
author's  introduction,  p.  60,  1.  23. 

63.  what  time  =  the  time  when.  —  Thirty  Cities  :  the  Latin  cities 
that  took  the  part  of  the  exiled  Tarquins. 

78.  Of  mortal  eyes  were  seen  :  for  this  use  of  '  of '  = '  by '  cf.  "  He 
was  seen  of  Cephas,  then  of  the  twelve,"  i  Cor.  15,  5;  and  "Touching 
this  dreaded  sight  twice  seen  of  us,"  Shakespeare,  Hai7ilet,  I.  r. 

82.  Consul  first  in  place:  "When  both  consuls  were  in  Rome, 
each  was  superior  during  alternate  months."     [Gow.] 

89.    Latines  :  we  now  spell  it  '  Latins.' 

91.    did  his  ofBce  :  i.e.  read  the  proclamation  that  follows. 

96.  To  bring  the  Tarquins  home :  it  will  be  remembered  that  the 
whole  family  of  the  Tarquins  was  banished  when  Tarquin  the  Proud 
was  dethroned. 

114.    hied  him:  cf.  Hor.  145. 

119.  Conscript  Fathers:  the  title  by  which  the  assembled  senate 
was  addressed. 

123.  choose  we:  is  this  equivalent  to  'we  choose'  or  to  'let  us 
choose'?  —  Dictator:  as  here  implied  the  dictator  was  an  extraordinary 
officer,  appointed  in  times  of  great  danger.  He  had  absolute  power 
for  the  time  being,  superseding  all  other  magistrates,  but  this  power 
lasted  for  only  six  months,  and  generally  was  resigned  as  soon  as  the 
crisis  was  passed.  The  'Master  of  the  Knights,'  or  '  Master  of  Horse,' 
was  his  second  in  command. 


132  NOTES. 

125.  Camerium  :     an  ancient  town  of  Latium  taken  by  Tarquin. 

126.  Aulus  :  cf.  1.  S3. 

132.  axes  twenty-four:  i.e.  twenty-four  lictors,  tlie  number  that 
would  be  assigned  to  the  two  consuls  ;  see  note  on  1.  2.  The  axes  in 
X\\&  fasces  symbolized  the  power  of  life  and  death. 

143.   With  boys  and  with  gray-headed  men :  cf.  Hor.  58-65. 

145.    hard  by:  cf.  "fast  by,"  Hor.  193. 

i6g.  Witch's  Fortress :  the  Circeian  promontory,  said  by  the 
Roman  poets  to  have  been  the  abode  of  Circe,  the  enchantress. 

174.  ghastly  priest,  etc. :  near  Aricia  was  a  celebrated  temple  of 
Diana,  who  was  worshipped  with  barbarous  customs  ;  her  priest  was 
always  a  runaway  slave,  who  obtained  his  office  by  killing  his  predeces- 
sor in  single  combat. 

179.  buffaloes:  these  must  not  be  thought  of  as  resembling  the 
buffaloes  of  North  America. 

185.    Laurentian:  about  Laurentum. 

193.    Mamilius  :  see  note  on  Hor.  96. 

200.  vest:  robe;  see  note  on  Hor.  184. — of  purple.  .  .  .  By 
Syria's  dark-browed  daughters :  Syria  was  famous  for  its  purple 
dyes. 

203.  sails  of  Carthage  :  Carthage,  on  the  northern  coast  of  Africa, 
preceded  Rome  as  the  commercial  power  of  the  Mediterranean. 

209.    false  Sextus,  etc. :  see  notes  on  Hor.  199,  200. 

216.  but  he:  cf.  Hor.  355. 

217.  A  woman  :  Lucretia. 

225.  So  spun  she  and  so  sang  she:  this  line  has  been  called 
"  strangely  harsh  " ;  do  you  find  it  so .-' 

233.  Tibur  :  by  metonymy,  the  place  for  the  people.  —  Pedum  .  .  . 
Ferentinum :  ancient  towns  of  Latium  that  early  fell  into  decay. 

236.  Gabii :  the  place  where,  according  to  tradition,  Romulus  was 
brought  up. 

237.  Volscian  :  see  note  on  Hor.  561.  —  succors:  called  "  aids  "  in 
1.  674- 

250.   Apulian  :  Apulia  was  a  division  of  southeastern  Italy. 

263.  Pomptine  fog :  refers  to  the  Pomptine  marshes,  low  land  be- 
tween the  mountains  and  the  sea.  Macaulay  wrote,  Jan.  i,  1839:  "I 
shall  not  soon  forget  the  three  days  which  I  passed  between  Rome  and 
Naples.  As  I  descended  the  hill  of  Velletri,  the  huge  Pontine  Marsh 
was  spread  out  below  like  a  sea.  1  soon  got  into  it ;  and,  thank  God, 
soon  got  out  of  it."     \_Life  and  Letters,  vol.  ii,  p.  41.] 

278.    Digentian  :  the  Digentia  was  a  small  affluent  of  the  Anio. 


THE   BATTLE    OF   THE   LAKE   REGLLLUS.  133 

288.  Fidenae  :  a  city  five  miles  north  of  Rome,  which  was  frequently 
at  war  with  Rome. 

294.  Calabrian :  Calabria  was  a  district  of  southeastern  Italy. — 
brake  :  see  dictionary. 

307.  pruning  among  his  elms :  grape-vines  were  often  trained 
upon  elm-trees. 

325.  clients :  dependents,  followers ;  plebeians  protected  by  patri- 
cians and  bound  to  render  service  in  return.  The  relations  of  patron 
and  client  were  regulated  by  law. 

347.  Titus:  cf.  11.  249-252. 

348.  bestrode:  stood  over  for  protection.  In  Shakespeare's  /  Zi'ifwrjj' 
IV,  V.  I,  Falstaff  says  to  the  prince:  "Hal,  if  thou  see  me  down  in 
battle,  and  bestride  me,  so  ;  't  is  a  point  of  friendship." 

360.    Julian  line  :  the  same  to  which  Julius  Caesar  belonged. 

362.    Velian  hill :  a  ridge  connecting  the  Palatine  with  the  Esquiline. 

368.  made :  is  '  make  at '  a  common  expression  for  '  attack,' 
'  assault '  ? 

375.  the  good  house,  etc. :  Publius  Valerius,  elected  consul  in  the 
first  year  of  the  republic,  and  three  times  afterwards,  received  the  sur- 
name Publicola  (Poplicola),  "friend  of  the  people,"  on  account  of  his 
advocacy  of  the  rights  of  the  plebeians.  The  Valerius  mentioned  here 
was  Marcus,  his  brother. 

383.  yeoman:  not  used  in  the  sense  of  '  farmer,' but  probably  as 
members  of  a  bodyguard,  like  "  Yeomen  of  the  Guard  "  of  the  English 
sovereign. 

408.    wist:  imperfect  of  '  wit,' know. 

412.  gnawed  the  ground :  mention  another  common  expression 
similar  to  this. 

416.    Consular  :  one  who  had  been  consul,  an  ex-consul. 

429.    plumed  :  read  in  two  syllables. 

439.   as  :  as  if.  —  Apennine  :  see  note  on  Hor.  25. 

441.    battle:  battle-line. 

444.  amain:  cf.  the  meaning  here  with  that  in  Hor.  392;  also  cf. 
1.  462. 

480.  From  Aufidus  to  Po  :  i.e.  in  all  Italy,  the  Aufidus  being  in  far 
southern  Italy  and  the  Po  far  to  the  north. 

483.    war :  note  the  frequent  use  of  this  word  for  '  battle.' 

495.    lay  on  :  cf.  the  familiar  "lay  on,  Macduff,"  of  Macbeth. 

506.   head-piece:  helmet. 

513.  spurning:  cf.  "and  spurning  with  her  foot  the  ground"  in 
Longfellow's    Tlie  Building  of  the  Ship. 


134  NOTES. 

547.  Herminia :  daughter  of  Herminius ;  so  Virginia,  daughter  of 
Virginius,  Julia,  daughter  of  Julius,  etc. 

557.  The  furies  of  thy  brother :  the  Furies,  called  by  the  Greeks 
Eumenides  or  Eriiinyes,  were  avenging  deities  who  pursued  and  pun- 
ished men  for  their  crimes.  Here  reference  is  made  to  the  crime  of 
Sextus  Tarquinius  towards  Lucretia. 

568.  rich  Capuan's  hall :  Capua  was  the  chief  city  of  Campania 
(southeast  of  Latium),  noted  for  its  wealth  and  luxury. 

569.  knees  were  loosened:  a  Homeric  expression.  The  knees 
were  regarded  by  the  ancients  as  the  seat  of  bodily  strength. 

572.   the  bravest  Tarquin :  cf.  11.  251,  252. 

603.  Samothracia  :  an  island  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Aegean 
sea,  where  Castor  and  Pollux  were  worshipped. 

604.  Cyrene  :  a  Greek  city  in  northern  Africa. 

605.  Tarentum  :  a  Greek  city  in  southern  Italy. 

607.    Syracuse:  thechief  city  of  Sicily,  founded  by  the  Dorian  Greeks. 
609.    Eurotas  :  a  river  of  Laconia,  in  southern  Greece,  on  the  banks 
of  which  was  Sparta  or  Lacedaemon.     Cf.  11.  29-32. 

619,  620.    Ardea  .  .  .  Cora :  i.e.  the  men  of  Ardea  and  Cora.     Cf.  11. 

233-236- 

623.  hearth  of  Vesta:  as  typical  of  Rome  itself.  Vesta  was  god- 
dess of  the  hearth  and  of  family  life ;  also  of  the  city  regarded  as  a 
family.     See  note  on  Hor.  229. 

624.  Golden  Shield:  see  note  on  Hor.  81. 
641.    battle:  i.e.  line  of  battle.     Cf.  1.  441. 

646.    Celtic  :  Gallic,  the  Po  being  in  Cisalpine  Gaul. 

649.    Sire  Quirinus  :  a  name  applied  to  the  deified  Romulus. 

659,  660.   Ferentinum  .  .  .  Lanuvium:  see  notes  on  11.  233,  619. 

674.   aids  :  cf.  1.  237. 

689.    Sempronius  Atratinus  :  cf.  1.  141. 

692.  chair  of  state  :  otherwise  called  the  "  curule  chair,"  which  was 
in  shape  something  like  a  camp-stool.     Cf.  Vir.  116,  266. 

695.   the  Twelve,  etc. :  see  note  on  Hor.  81. 

699.  colleges :  the  word  '  college  '  here  means  simply  '  body  of  asso- 
ciates '  or  '  colleagues,'  referring  to  religious  bodies. 

716.    pricking  =  spurring,  —  an  antiquated  use  of  the  word. 

721.  Asylum  :  Romulus  is  said  to  have  opened  an  asylum,  or  place 
of  refuge  for  people  of  neighboring  states,  on  the  Capitoline  hill. 

723.  the  fire  that  burns  for  aye  :  see  notes  on  Hor.  229  and  1.  623. 

724.  the  shield:   see  note  on  Hor.  81. 

745.    Vesta  :  i.e.  the  temple  of  Vesta,  "  Vesta's  fane." 


VIRGINIA.  135 

747.  the  well :  a  pool  or  pond  in  the  forum,  called  the  "  lake  of 
Juturna." 

760.  the  Dorians :  a  division  of  the  Greek  people,  whose  chief  dty 
was  Sparta. 

768.  Sit  shilling  on  the  sails  :  an  allusion  to  the  electrical  phenom- 
enon now  called  "St.  Elmo's  fire,"  and  to  the  superstition  that  asso- 
ciated this  phenomenon  with  the  Twin  Brethren. 

774.  build  we  :  cf.  "  choose  we,"  1.  123  and  note.  —  stately  dome  : 
it  is  said  that  Aulus  the  Dictator  during  the  battle  vowed  a  temple  to 
Castor  and  Pollux.  Such  a  temple  was  built  in  the  forum  opposite  the 
temple  of  Vesta. 

780-796.  The  worship  of  the  Dioscuri  (another  name  for  the  Twin 
Brethren)  was  introduced  in  Rome  at  an  early  period,  and  this  festival 
on  the  15th  of  July  was  continued  for  several  centuries. 

786.   Mars  :  cf.  1.  8. 


VIRGINIA. 


The  year  of  the  city  CCCLXXXII :  b.c.  372. 

2.    Tribunes  :  see  Introduction,  p.  89,  and  note  on  Hor.  267. 

5.  fountains  running  wine  :  "  A  familiar  touch  of  fancy  in  ancient 
legends,  as  in  those  of  later  times."     [Rolfe.] 

6.  maids  with  snaky  tresses :  an  allusion,  probably,  to  the  story 
of  Medusa,  whose  beautiful  hair  was  changed  to  hissing  serpents  on 
account  of  the  jealousy  of  Minerva.  —  sailors  turned  to  swine : 
Circe  the  enchantress  "turned  to  swine"  some  of  the  followers  of 
Ulysses. 

10.  the  wicked  Ten :  those  magistrates,  called  Decemvirs,  who 
were  appointed  in  B.C.  451  to  codify  the  laws  and  to  rule  the  city  tem- 
porarily. They  compiled  the  "  Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,"  but  after- 
wards refused  to  lay  down  their  office,  and  treated  the  people  in  a 
tyrannical  manner. 

14.  Twelve  axes  :  see  notes  on  B.  L.  R.  2  and  132.  The  axes  were 
not  to  be  carried  with  Xh^t  fasces  within  the  city  limits. 

20.  With  outstretched  chin  :  what  is  indicated  by  this  attitude  ?  — 
client :  see  note  on  B.  L.  R.  325. 

23.  lying  Greeks :  as  the  expression  implies,  Romans  held  the 
Greeks  in  light  esteem. 

24.  Licinius  :   see  Introduction,  pp.  89,  94. 


136  NOTES. 

31.    tablets  :  boards  smeared  with  wax  for  writing,  etc. 
35.    Sacred  Street :  Via  Sacra,  the  principal  street  of  ancient  Rome, 
which  ran  from  the  Capitol  through  the  forum  and  beyond. 

37.  How  for  a  sport,  etc. :  find  the  story  in  History  of  Rome. 

38.  Lucrece :  in  I.atin  Lucretia,  wife  of  Lucius  Tarquinius  Collati- 
nus,  who  was  a  cousin  of  the  king. 

64.    Punic :  Carthaginian. 

74.  The  year  of  the  sore  sickness :  refers  to  the  great  plague  of 
B.C.  463.  Our  ancestors  of  a  century  or  two  ago  were  wont  to  speak  of 
such  a  time  as  "  the  time  of  the  great  mortality." 

76.   augurs  :  see  note  on  Hor.  388. 

81.  there  was  no  Tribune:  all  the  ordinary  offices  of  state  were 
discontinued  on  the  appointment  of  the  Decemvirs. — the  word  of 
might :  a  tribune  could  by  his  simple  veto  put  a  stop  to  the  intended 
action  of  any  other  magistrate.     See  note  on  Hor.  267. 

83.  Licinius  :  the  tribune  who  carried  the  famous  Licinian  laws,  by 
which  the  patricians  and  plebeians  were  finally  reconciled,  the  latter 
gaining  the  right  to  be  elected  to  the  consulship.  Cf.  1.  24.  —  Sextius : 
the  first  plebeian  consul. 

87.  Icilius :  one  of  the  chief  leaders  in  the  outbreak  against  the 
Decemvirs.     Virginia  was  betrothed  to  him. 

89.  that  column :  which  commemorated  the  victory  of  the  Horatii 
over  the  Curiatii  in  the  Alban  war  during  the  reign  of  TuUus  Hostilius. 

94.  Quirites :  the  name  by  which  the  Romans  were  addressed  as 
citizens  and  civilians. 

95.  Servius  :  Servius  Tullius,  the  sixth  king  of  Rome,  who  reformed 
the  constitution.  —  Lucrece  :  the  accent  here  is  on  the  first  syllable.  Cf. 
1.  38.  So  in  Shakespeare's  Twelfth  Night,  II.  5,  "  And  silence  like  a 
Lucrece '  knife." 

96.  the  great  vengeance :  of  course  referring  to  the  expulsion  of 
the  Tarquins. 

97.  false  sons  make  red,  etc. :  Lucius  Junius  Brutus,  the  first  con- 
sul at  Rome,  put  to  death  his  two  sons,  who  had  joined  in  the  attempt 
to  restore  the  Tarquins. 

98.  Scaevola  :  "  the  left-handed,"  who,  on  being  condemned  to  be 
burned  alive  for  an  attempt  upon  the  life  of  King  Porsena,  thrust  his 
right  hand  into  the  flames,  and  held  it  there  without  flinching.  Read 
the  whole  account  in  a  Classical  Dictionary  or  History  of  Rome. 

102.    Sacred  Hill:  see  note  on  B.  L.  R.  14. 

104.  Marcian  fury :  Caius  Marcius  Coriolanus,  who  captured  the 
Volscian    town    Corioli,    was   much    disliked    by  the   plebeians  on  ac- 


VIRGINIA.  137 

count  of  his  haughty  bearing  towards  them,  and  was  condemned  to 
exile,  B.C.  491.  —  Fabian  pride  :  the  Fabian  family  was  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  of  the  patrician  families  for  many  centuries.  Cf.  B.  L.  R. 
356.  The  reference  here  is  probably  to  Kaeso  (Caeso)  Fabius,  whose 
troops  refused  to  storm  the  camp  of  a  defeated  enemy,  and  so  to  com- 
plete their  general's  victory  and  entitle  him  to  the  honors  of  a  triumph. 

105.  Quinctius  :  Kaeso  (Caeso),  son  of  the  famous  dictator  Lucius 
Quinctius  Cincinnatus,  was  a  violent  opponent  of  the  plebeians,  and  was 
driven  into  banishment. 

106.  the  haughtiest  Claudius :  the  father,  or  perhaps  the  grand- 
father, of  Appius,  the  Decemvir,  both  of  whom  were  noted  for  their 
active  hostility  to  the  plebeians.  One  of  them  was  "  hustled  in  the 
Forum  in  a  riot  which  had  been  brought  on  by  his  overbearing  conduct." 

111.  No  crier  to  the  polling,  etc.:  i.e.  no  elections  were  held. 

112.  No  Tribune,  etc. :  see  note  on  1.  81. 

115.  holy  fillets:  i.e.  the  priesthood.  Fillets  were  bands  of  red 
and  white  wool  tied  with  ribbons,  worn  by  priests  and  vestals. — 
purple  gown  :  i.e.  gown  with  a  purple  border,  the  toga  praetexta,  worn 
by  the  higher  magistrates. 

116.  axes:  see  notes  on  1.  14  and  B.L.R.  2,  132.  —  curule  chair: 
see  note  on  B.  L.  R.  692.  —  the  car:  i.e.  the  triumphal  chariot. 

117.  press  :  impress,  force  into  the  army. 

120.  usance:  interest  on  money;  the  word  in  this  sense  is  now 
obsolete.  Shylock,  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  I.  3,  says  :  "  Still  have 
you  rated  me  about  my  moneys  and  my  usances." 

121.  haggard  debtors:  the  laws  in  relation  to  debtors  were  very 
harsh  and  uncompromising,  and  the  debtors  were  mostly  plebeians. 

124.    holes  for  free-born  feet :  the  stocks. 

130.  Alban  kings  :  Alba  Longa,  the  most  ancient  city  of  Latium, 
is  said  to  have  founded  Rome.    See  Introduction  to  P.  C,  p.  109, 11.  1-5. 

133.  Corinthian  mirrors:  Corinth  in  Greece  was  at  this  time  a 
wealthy  commercial  city. 

134.  Capuan  odors:  see  note  on  B.L.R.  568.  —  Spanish  gold: 
Spain  was  noted  for  its  mineral  wealth. 

148.  great  sewer :  constructed  by  Tarquin  the  Elder,  and  still  in 
use  to  this  day. 

149.  whittle  :    knife  for  slaughtering  cattle. 

152.  Farewell,  sweet  child,  etc.:  this  speech  of  Virginius  is  con- 
sidered by  some  critics  to  show  Macaulay's  weakness  in  dealing  with 
the  pathetic.  It  has  been  called  "  the  weakest  part  of  the  poem,  and 
in  marked  contrast  to  the  concise  and  pregnant  lines  of  the  narrative 


138  NOTES. 

elsewhere."  The  "  contrast  "  is  evident  enough  ;  does  it  show  weak- 
ness ?  Following  are  two  contrary  opinions  on  this  question  :  "  It  is  a 
singular  thing  that  Macaulay,  whose  sensibility  and  genuine  tenderness 
of  nature  are  quite  beyond  doubt,  had  almost  no  command  of  the 
pathetic.  .  .  .  Macaulay  could  not  hold  the  more  passionate  emotions 
sufficiently  at  arm's  length  to  describe  them  properly  when  he  felt  them. 
And  when  they  passed,  his  imagination  did  not  reproduce  them  with 
a  clearness  available  for  art.  A  man  on  the  point  of  stabbing  his 
daughter  to  save  her  from  dishonor  would  certainly  not  think  of  mak- 
ing the  stagey  declamation  which  Macaulay  has  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Virginius.  The  frigid  conceits  about  '  Capua's  marble  halls,'  and  the 
kite  gloating  upon  his  prey,  are  the  last  things  that  would  occur  to  a 
mind  filled  with  such  awful  passions."  [J.  Cotter  Morison  in  English 
Men  of  Letters,  Macaulay,  p.  117.]  "This  is  the  only  passage  in  the 
volume  that  can  be  called  —  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  word  —  pathetic. 
It  is,  indeed,  the  only  passage  in  which  Mr.  Macaulay  has  sought  to 
stir  up  that  profound  emotion.  Has  he  succeeded .''  We  hesitate  not 
to  say  that  he  has,  to  our  heart's  desire.  .  .  .  This  effect  has  been 
wrought  simply  by  letting  the  course  of  the  great  natural  affections 
flow  on,  obedient  to  the  promptings  of  a  sound,  manly  heart,  unimpeded 
and  undiverted  by  any  alien  influences,  such  as  are  but  too  apt  to  steal 
in  upon  inferior  minds  when  dealing  imaginatively  with  severe  trouble, 
and  to  make  them  forget,  in  the  indulgence  of  their  own  self-esteem, 
what  a  sacred  thing  is  misery."  [Professor  Wilson  in  Blackwood^ s 
Magazine,  vol.  lii,  p.  819.] 

157.  civic  crown :  .a  chaplet  of  oak-leaves  with  acorns,  presented  to 
a  Roman  soldier  who  had  saved  the  life  of  a  comrade  in  battle  and 
slain  his  opponent. 

182.   Volscians  :  see  note  on  Hor.  561. 

184.    leech:  surgeon.     Cf.  " leech-craft,"  1.  119. 

193.  the  nether  gloom:  the  under-world,  where  dwelt  the  shades 
(manes)  of  the  dead.     Cf.  1.  127. 

200.   Sacred  Street:  see  note  on  1.  35. 

202.  Ten  thousand  pounds  of  copper:  for  four  or  five  centuries 
after  the  founding  of  Rome  copper  was  the  only  metal  used  for  money, 
and  even  this,  in  the  early  times,  was  not  coined,  but  passed  by  weight. 

203.  clients  :  see  note  on  B.  L.  R.  325. 

204.  lictors  :  see  note  on  B.  L.  R.  2. 

213.  cypress :  an  evergreen  tree,  sacred  to  Pluto,  and  a  sign  of 
death  and  mourning. 

223.    yeomen  :  see  note  on  B.  L.  R.  383. 


THE   PROPHECY  OF  CAP  VS.  139 

228.  Pincian  Hill  .  .  .  Latin  Gate  :  i.e.  remotely  to  north  and  south. 

232.   breaking  up  of  benches:  what  for.' 

242.  Tribunes  :  the  cry  now  is  for  the  restoration  of  the  tribunes ; 
see  note  on  1.  81. 

249.  Caius  of  Corioli :  Caius  Marcius  Coriolanus ;  see  note  on 
1.    104. 

251.  yoke:  conquered  enemies  were  forced  to  "pass  under  the 
yoke,"  which  consisted  of  two  spears  set  upright  in  the  ground  with  a 
third  laid  across  them.  The  word  "yoke"  in  1.  256  is  used  in  its  more 
common  sense. — Furius  :  Marcus  Furius  Camillus,  the  greatest  gen- 
eral of  his  time,  who  took  Veii,  and  drove  out  the  Gauls  from  the 
Roman  territory,  B.C.  390.     He  was  five  times  dictator. 

257.  Cossus :  the  most  celebrated  man  of  this  name  was  Sergius 
Cornelius  Cossus,  who  (B.C.  42S)  killed  the  king  of  Veii  in  single 
combat. 

258.  Fabius  :  see  second  note  on  1.  104.  —  chase  :  hunters. 

266.  put  their  necks  beneath:  cf.  "High  on  the  necks  of  slaves," 
Hor.  III. 

268.  staves  :  sticks  or  clubs,  plural  of  '  staff.' 

269.  or  staff  or  sword  :  either  staff  or  sword. 

277.  Calabrian  :  cf.  B.  L.  R.  294. 

278.  Thunder  Cape  :  the  promontory  Acroceraunium  on  the  coast 
of  Epirus,  opposite  the  Calabrian  coast  of  Italy. 


THE    PROPHECY   OF   CAPYS. 

The  year  of  the  city  CCCCLXXIX  :  b.c.  275. 

2.  Sylvian  :  descended  from  Sylvius  (Silvius),  son  of  Ascanius  and 
grandson  of  Aeneas,  to  whom  and  his  followers  the  Romans  liked  to 
refer  their  ancestry.     All  the  Alban  kings  had  the  cognomen  Silvius. 

3.  Alba  Longa:  see  note  on  Vir.  130. 

4.  Aventine :  according  to  one  tradition  Aventinus  was  an  Alban 
king,  who  was  buried  on  the  hill  which  took  his  name. 

7.  The  children :  Romulus  and  Remus. 

8.  The  mother  :  Rhea  Silvia. 

23.   the  dead  are  living:   in  allusion  to  the  supposed  death  and 
subsequent  discovery  of  the  twins. 
25.    bloody  king:  see  1.  i. 

\ 


140  NOTES. 

26.  lying  priest :  see  1.  5. 

27.  raging  flood  :  the  Tiber. 

34.   yellow  foam :  cf.  Hor.  98,  466. 

37.   The  ravening  she-wolf:  cf.  Hor.  360. 

48.    grandsire :  Numitor. 

58.   horse-hair  :  the  helmet  plume. 

71.    holy  fillets:  see  note  on  Vir.  115. 

95.  From  head  to  foot  he  trembled  :  he  was  becoming  inspired  with 
prophetic  fervor. 

106.   vines  clasp  many  a  tree:  see  note  on  B.  L.  R.  307. 

no.  Tartessian  :  from  Tartessus,  an  ancient  town  of  Spain,  proba- 
bly the  same  as  Tarshish  of  the  Bible.     See  second  note  on  Vir.  134. 

112.  Libyan:  African.  Libya,  the  Greek  name  for  Africa,  was 
often  used  for  Africa  itself. 

115,  116.  Arabia  .  .  .  Sidon  :  in  allusion  to  the  various  cosmetics 
and  dyes  brought  from  those  places. 

123.  sprung  from  the  War-god's  loins :  the  father  of  Romulus 
was  said  to  be  the  war-god  Mars. 

125.  From  sunrise  unto  sunset :  does  this  expression  refer  to  place 
or  time .' 

128.  and  name  it  by  thy  name:  it  was  a  popular  but  erroneous 
belief  that  the  name  Rome  was  derived  from  Romulus. 

130.  Vesta's  sacred  fire:  the  fire  on  the  altar  of  Vesta  was  kept 
continually  burning.     See  notes  on  Hor.  229,  B.  L.  R.  623,  723. 

149.  Pomona  :  goddess  of  fruits. 

150.  Liber:  ancient  Italian  divinity,  patron  of  agriculture,  later 
identified  with  the  Greek  Bacchus  or  Dionysus. 

151.  Pales  :  the  divinity  of  flocks  and  shepherds. 
153-    Venus  :  goddess  of  love. 

169.  the  soft  Campanian  :  cf.  note  on  "  some  rich  Capuan's  hall," 
B.  L.  R.  56S. 

171.    Tyre  :  see  note  on  1.  235. 

173.   Carthage  :  see  note  on  B.  L.  R.  203. 

175.  Leave  to  the  Greek,  etc.  :  the  pursuits  of  sculpture  and  litera- 
ture are  here  considered  effeminate  in  comparison  with  warlike  pursuits. 

177-184.  As  is  well  known,  the  Romans  for  many  centuries  excelled 
in  all  the  arts  of  war. 

177.  pilum:  the  javelin  (the  peculiar  weapon  of  the  Roman  legion- 
ary soldier)  consisted  of  a  heavy  wooden  shaft  about  four  feet  long, 
into  the  end  of  which  was  inserted  an  iron  shank  about  two  feet  long 
ending  in  a  barbed  or  flat  heart-shaped  point. 


THE   PROPHECY   OE   CAP  VS.  141 

184.  Jove's  eternal  fane:  on  the  Capitoline  hill. 

185.  Volscian  :   see  note  on  Hor.  561,  and  cf.  Fir.  182. 

186.  vail :  the  word  means  '  to  lower,'  not  '  to  cover.'  Cf.  Afer- 
chant  of  Vetiice,  I.  i,  "Vailing  her  high  top  lower  than  her  ribs." 

187.  Soft  Capua:  cf.  "soft  Campanian,"  1.  169. 

189.  Lucumoes  :  see  note  on  Hor.  185.  —  Arnus  :  a  river^of  Etruria. 

190.  rods  :  i.e.  XVq  fasces,  symbols  of  power  ;  see  note  on  B.  L.  R.z. 

191.  proud  Samnite  :  three  wars  were  waged  by  the  Romans  against 
the  Samnites,  a  race  of  central  Italy. 

193.  Gaul:  Rome  was  destroyed  by  the  Gauls  in  i;.c.  390,  but  was 
rebuilt. 

195.   fair-haired  :  cf.  note  on  Hor.  37. 

197.  The  Greek :  what  Greek  general  in  particular  was  "  the  con- 
queror of  the  East  "  ? 

The  bard  now  reaches  the  events  which  this  Lay  is  intended  particu- 
larly to  celebrate,  namely,  the  war  with  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus. 

200.    huge  earth-shaking  beast,  etc.  :  see  Introduction,  p.  iii,  1.  27. 

205.  Epirotes  :  men  of  Epirus,  a  division  of  northern  Greece. 

206.  Wedged  close  with  shield  and  spear:  referring  to  the  famous 
Macedonian  phalan.x. 

209.  false  Tarentum :  see  Introduction,  pp.  109,  no. 

225.    great  triumph:   i.e.  the  triumphal  procession;  cf.  11.  181-184. 

230.  the  Red  King:  the  name  Pyrrhus  is  derived  from  a  Greek 
word  meaning  '  fire,'  and  originally  meant  '  flame-colored  '  or  '  red.' 

332.    gown  washed  white:  see  Introduction,  p.  no,  1.  18. 

235.  rich  dye  of  Tyre:  Tyre  in  Syria  produced  and  exported  large 
quantities  of  a  purple  or  crimson  dye  obtained  from  a  species  of  shell- 
fish.    Cf.  11.  171,  172,  also  1.  116. 

235-248.  It  should  be  remembered  that  in  a  triumphal  procession 
the  spoils  of  war  were  carried  before  the  commander  for  the  people  to 
gaze  upon. 

249.    Manius  Curius  :  see  Introduction,  p.  in,  1.  32. 

254.  embroidered  gown :  a  general  when  celebrating  a  triumph 
wore  the  toga picta,  "embroidered  gown,"  and  also  the  tuttica palmata, 
an  undergarment  with  embroidery  representing  palm-branches. 

256.  green  crown  :  a  wreath  of  laurel. 

257.  Rosea  :  a  district  of  central  Italy. 

259.  the  bull:  for  sacrifice  at  the  altar  of  Jupiter.  —  Mevania  :  an 
ancient  town  in  Umbria,  celebrated  for  its  breed  of  white  oxon ;  cf. 
Hor.  55. 

264.    Sacred  Way :  see  note  on  Vir.  35. 


142  A'OTES. 

266.  Suppliant's  Grove :  There  were  said  to  be  two  groves  in  the 
depression  between  the  two  summits  of  the  Capitoline  hill. 

269.  o'er  two  bright  havens,  etc.  :  the  situation  of  Corinth  on  an 
isthmus  explains  the  expression. 

271.  gigantic  King  of  Day:  the  famous  colossal  statue  of  the  sun- 
god.  It  is  said  that  at  Rhodes  (southwest  of  Asia  Minor)  there  is  hardly 
a  day  in  the  year  when  the  sun  is  not  visible. 

273.    Orontes  :  the  principal  river  of  Syria. 

276.  dark-red  colonnades  :  made  of  the  "dark-red  "  Egyptian  gran- 
ite, a  specimen  of  which  may  now  be  seen  in  Central  Park,  New  York. 

280.    Byrsa  :  the  citadel  of  Carthage. 

283.    the  sand  of  morning-land  :  probably  referring  to  Arabia. 

285.    Atlas :  the  mountain  in  northwestern  Africa. 


PRONOUNCING    VOCABULARY    OF    PROPER 
NAMES. 

(English  Method.) 


Note. — ae  =  e  ;   eu  =  u  ;   ia,  iu,  and  the  like  are  generally  run  together  in  one 
syllable  ;   thus  Ho-ra'tius  =  Ho-ra'-shus. 


A'  dri  a 

Ae  bu'  ti  us  (t  =  sh) 

Ae  ga'  tes 

Ae  mil'  i  us 

Al'  ba  Lon'ga 

Al  bin'  i  a 

Al  ex  an'  der 

Al'  gi  dus 

Al'  pine 

Al  ver'  nus 

Am  mi  a'  nus 

A  mu'  li  us 

An  ehi'  ses 

An  dro  ni'  cus 

A'  ni  6 

An  tig'  o  nus 

Anx'  ur 

Ap'  en  nine 

Ap'  pi  us 

A  pol'  16 

A  pol  lo  do'  rus 

A  pu'  li  an 

Ar'  de  a 

A  ri'  ci  a  (rish) 

Ar  pi'  num 

Ar  re'  ti  um  (t  =  sh) 

A' runs 

As'  tur 


A  sy'  lum 
A  til'  i  us 
At  ra  tl'  nus 
At'  ti  la 
Au'  fi  dus 
Au  gus'  tus 
Au'  lus 
Au'  nus 
Au'  ser 
Aus'  ter 
Av'  en  tine 

Bac  ehi'  a  dae 
Bac'  chus 
Ban  dvi'  si  a  (zhi) 
Ben  e  ven'  turn 
Bru' tus 
Byr'  sa  (Bur) 

^ae'  so 
Ca'  i  us 
Ca  la'  bri  an 
Cal'  vus 
Ca  me'  ri  um 
Ca'  mors 
Ca  mil'  lus 
Cam  pa'  ni  a 
Cap  i  to  li'  nus 
143 


Cap'  u  a 

Ca'  pys 

Car'  thage 

Cas'  tor 

Ca't5 

Cat'  u  lus 

^19'  e  ro 

^il'  ni  us 

^i  min'  i  an 

^in  9in  na'  tus 

^in'  e  as 

(Jir'  rha 

Cla'  nis 

Clau'  di  us 

Cli  turn'  nus 

Cloe'  li  a 

Clii'  si  um  (zhi) 

Co'  cle§ 

Co  los'  sus 

Co  mi'  ti  um  (mish) 

Co'  ra 

Cor'  inth 

Co  ri  o  la'  nus 

Co  ri'  o  II 

Cor'  ne 

Cor  ne'  li  us 

Cor  to'  na 

Cor'  vus 


144 


PRONOUNCING   VOCABULAR Y 


Co'  sa 

Cos'  sus 

Cras'  sus 

Crem'  e  ra 

Cris'  pus 

Croe'  sus 

Crus  tu  me'  ri  um 

Cu  ri  a'  ti  i  (t  =  sh) 

Cu'  ri  us 

Cur'  sor 

Cur'  ti  us  (t  =  sh) 

(^yp'  se  lus 

^y  re'  ne 

De'  ci  us  (c  =  sh) 

Del'  phi 

De  moph'  i  lus 

De  mos'  the  nes 

Den  ta'  tus 

Di  gen'  ti  an  (t  =  sh) 

Di  6  ny'  si  us  (nish) 

Dl  6  ny' sus 

Di  OS  cu'  rl 

Do  mi'  ti  an  (mish) 

Do'  ri  ans 

Dii  il'  i  us 

E  ge'  ri  a 
El'va 
En'  ni  us 
E  pi'  rotes 
E  trii'  ri  a 
E  trus'  can 
Eu  rip'  i  des 
Ell  ro'  tas 

Fa'  bi  us 

Fa  bri'  ci  us  (brish) 

Fa  le'  ri  i 

Faus'  tu  lus 

Faus'  tus 


Fer  en  ti'  num 
Fi  de'  nae 
Flac'  cus 
Fla'  vi  us 
Flo'  rus 
Fron  ti'  nus 
Fii'  ri  us 

Ga'  bi  T 

Ha  mil'  car 
Han'  n5 
Her'  cu  les 
Her  min'  i  a 
Her  min'  i  us 
He  rod'  o  tus 
He'  si  od  (s  =  sh) 
H5  ra'  ti  T  (t  =  sh) 
Ho  ra'  ti  us  (t  =  sh) 
Hos  til'  i  us 
Hos'  tus 

I  ^il'  i  us 
II'  i  ad 
lOva 
I  tal'  i  cus 
Ix  T'  on 

Ja  nic'  u  lum 
Ju'  li  us 
Ju'  no 

Kae'  so 

La9  e  dae'  mon 

La  nil'  vi  um 

Lars 

Lar'  ti  us  (t  =  sh) 

Lat  er  a'  nus 

La'  ti  an  (t  —  sh) 

Lat'  ines 


Lau  ren'  turn 

Lau' su  lus 

La  vin'  i  um 

Le'da 

Li'  her 

Lib'  yan 

Li  9in'  i  us 

Liv'  i  us 

Lu'  can 

Lu'  96  res 

Lu  9il'  i  us 

Lu'  ci  us  (c  =  sh) 

Lu  crece' 

Lu  ere'  ti  a  (t  =  sh) 

Lii'  cu  mo 

Lii'  na 

Lus  ci'  nus 

Lu  ta'  ti  us  (t  =  sh) 

Lys'  i  as  (lish) 

Ma  mil'  i  us 

Ma'  ni  us 

Man'  li  us 

Mar  eel  IT'  nus 

Mar'  cus 

Mars 

Mar'  ti  al  (shal) 

ISIas  sil'  i  a 

Max'  i  mus  ^ 

Me  gel'  lus 

Me  nan'  der 

Me'  ti  us  (t  =  sh) 

Met'  tus 

Me  va'  ni  a 

Mil'  ci  us  (c  =  sh) 

Mu  rae'  na 

Nae'  vi  us 
Nar 
Ne'  pos 
Ne  qui'  num 


OF  PROPER    NAMES. 


145 


No  men'  turn 
Nor'  ba 
Nil'  ma 
Nu'  mi  tor 
Nur'  sci  a  (shia) 

Oc'  nus 
Od'  ys  sey 
O  ron' tes 
Os'  tia 

Pal'  a  tine 
Pal'  a  tl'  nus 
Pa'les 
Pa  pir'  i  us 
Par  me'  ni  6 
Par  the'  ni  us 
Pa  tro'  clus 
Pe'  dum 
Per  i  an'  der 
Per'  seus 
Pic'  tor 
~  Pi'  cus 
Pin'  ci  an  (c  =  sh) 
Pi'  sae 
Plau'  tus 
Pie  be'  ian 
Plu' tarch 
Pol'  lux 
Po  lyb'  i  us 
Po  mo'  na 
Pomp'  tine 
Pop  lie'  o  la 
Pop  u  15'  ni  a 
Por'  ci  an  (c  =  sh) 
Por'  se  na 
Pos  thii'  mi  us 
Pub'  li  us 
Pyr'  rhus 

Quinc  til'  i  an 
Quinc'  ti  us  (t  =  sh) 


Quin  tl'  lis 
Quin'  tus 
Qui  ri'  tes 
Qui  ri'  nus 

Ram'  ni  an 
Re  gil'  lus 
Reg'  u  lus 
Re'  mus 
Rex 
Rhe'a 
Rhodes 
Rome 
Rom'  u  lus 
R5'  se  a 

Sa'  bines 

Sam'  nite 

Samothra'cia  (c  =  sh) 

Sar  din'  i  a 

Sar  pe'  don 

S9aev' o  la 

Se'  i  us 

Sem  pro'  ni  us 

Ser'  gi  us 

Ser'  vi  us 

Se'  ti  a  (t  =  sh) 

Sex  ti'  nus 

Sex'  ti  us 

Sex' tus 

Sib'  yl  line 

Sie'  ci  us  (c  =  sh) 

Si'  don 

Sil'  i  us 

Soph'  o  cleg 

So  rac'  te 

Spii'  ri  us 

St5' 15 

Sil'  tri  um 

Syl'  vi  an 

Syr'  a  cuse 

Syr'  i  a 


Taf'  i  tus 

Ta  ren'  turn 

Tar  pe'  ia 

Tar'  quin 

Tar  tes'  si  an  (s=  sh) 

The  oc'  ri  tus 

Thras'  y  mene 

Thii  5yd'  i  des 

Ti'  ber 

Ti'  bur 

Ti  fer'  num 

Ti'  ti  an  (t  =  sh) 

Ti'  tus 

To  lum'  ni  us 

Tii'  be  ro 

Tul'  li  a 

Tul'  lus 

Tus'  cii  lum 

Tyre 

U'fens 
Um'  bri  an 
Um'  bro 
Ur'go 

Va  le'  ri  us 
Var'  ro 
Ve'  ii  (yi) 
Ve'  li  an 
Ve  li'  trae 
Vel  le'  ius 
Ve'  nus 
Ver  ben'  na 
Ves'  ta 
Vir  gin'  i  a 
Vir  gin'  i  us 
Vol  a  ter'  rae 
Vol'  e  ro 

Vol'  sci  an  (shan) 
Vol  sin'  i  an 
Vol  sin'  i  um 
Vul'  so 


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A  Book  of  Elizabethan  Lyrics.  Selected  and  edited  by  Professor 
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327  pages.     List  price,  75  cents;    mailing  price,  85  cents. 

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Introduction  to  the  Poetry  of  Robert  Browning.  By  Professor  William 
J.  Alexander  of  the'  University  College,  Toronto.  212  pages. 
List  price,  $1.00  ;  mailing  price,  $1.10. 

Hudson's  Text-Book  of  Poetry.  By  Henry  N.  Hudson.  Selections 
from  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Burns,  Beattie,  Goldsmith,  and 
Thomson.  With  Lives  and  Notes.  Cloth.  704  pages.  List 
price,  $1.25;  mailing  price,  $1.40. 

Sidney's  Defense  of  Poesy.  Edited  by  Professor  Albert  S.  Cook  of 
\'ale  University.  103  pages.  List  price,  65  cents  ;  mailing  price, 
75  cents. 

Shelley's  Defense  of  Poetry.  Edited  by  Professor  Albert  S.  Cook 
of  Vale  University.  86  pages.  List  price,  50  cents  ;  mailing 
price,  60  cents. 

Cardinal  Newman's  Essay  on  Poetry.  With  reference  to  Aristotle's 
Poetics.  Edited  by  Professor  Albert  S.  Cook  of  Yale  Uni- 
versity.    36  pages.     List  price,  30  cents ;  mailing  price,  35  cents. 

The  Art  of  Poetry.  The  Poetical  Treatises  of  Horace,  Vida,  and 
Boileau,  with  the  translations  of  Howes,  Pitt,  and  Soame.  Edited 
by  Professor  Albert  S.  Cook  of  Vale  University.  303  pages. 
List  price,  $1.12  ;  mailing  price,  ^1.25. 

Addison's  Criticisms  on  Paradise  Lost.  Edited  by  Professor  Albert 
S.  Cook  of  Vale  University,  xxiv  +  200  pages.  List  price, 
^i.oo;  mailing  price,  $1.10. 

What  is  Poetry?  By  Leigh  Hunt.  Edited  by  Professor  Albert  S. 
Ccxjk  of  Yale  University.  98  pages.  List  price,  50  cents; 
mailing  price,  60  cents. 

A  Primer  of  English  Verse.  By  Professor  Hiram  Corson  of  Cornell 
University.     232  pages.     List  price,  $1.00;   mailing  price,  $1.10. 

A  Hand-Book  of  Poetics.  By  Professor  F.  B.  Gummere  of  Haverford 
College.    250  pages.     List  price,  #1.00;  mailing  price,  ;?i.  10. 

Characteristics  of  the  English  Poets.  From  Chaucer  to  Shirley.  By 
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